plastics engineering plastics engineering plastics engineering

Industry 4.0 & the Internet of Things:Injection Molding Gets Connected

Plastics EngineeringMay 2016

• “Smarter” Machines and Auxiliaries

• Thermoplastic Composites for

Aircraft Interiors

• Creating Better 3-D Printing Filaments

• Five Regulatory Issues to Watch in 2016

May 2016

Plastics

EngineeringPlastics

Engineering

00 Cover_Layout 1 4/19/16 5:55 AM Page cvr1

www.plasticsengineering.org | www.4spe.org | MAY 2016 | PLASTICS ENGINEERING | 1

CONTENTS

4 Thermoplastic Composites Take Off in Aircraft InteriorsBy Peggy MalnatiExtending the important role that composites already play in aircraft, reinforced thermoplastics slowly move into parts & panels

“Industry 4.0” and the Internet of Things

COVER STORY

10 Keeping Up with “Smarter” MachinesBy Jan H. SchutDriven by Industry 4.0, injection molding machines and their peripherals seek total integration

18 Data is Power in Dosing and BlendingBy Jennifer MarkarianInterconnected control systems and optimized data access can be used to improve process efficiency

22 Foaming Up NicelyBy Jon EvansInjection molded foams are worth their weight in resin savings, but they still have much room for improvement

CONSULTANT’S CORNER

28 The Incumbent Resin Effect for Single-Screw Extrusion of PE ResinsBy Mark A. Spalding, Qian Gou Xiaofei Sun, and Qing ShiDon’t blame the “challenger resin” for contamination and gels when switching resins in polyethylene film production

Technical Papers: 3-D Printing Filament Processing & Materials

32 Optimizing Precision & Productivity in Extruding 3-D Printing FilamentBy Dave CzarnikPrinting filament can be extruded at high speeds with high, consistent quality and dimensional stability

36 Improving PLA-Based Material for 3-D Printers Using Fused Deposition ModelingBy Saied H. KochesfahaniMineral fillers in PLA filament might open the door to high-quality personal desktop 3-D printing

VOLUME 72 ■ NUMBER 5 ■ MAY 2016

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2 | PLASTICS ENGINEERING | MAY 2016 | www.4spe.org | www.plasticsengineering.org

CONTENTS

44 Plastics-Makers Help Drive Recycling GrowthBy American Chemistry CouncilCommunication is the key for strengthening recycling efforts nationwide

INSIDE SPI

48 Five Regulatory Issues to Watch in 2016News about the state of the plastics industry from SPI: The Plastics Industry Trade Association

49 Energy-Saving TipBy Dr. Robin Kent

50 Industry News

56 Industry PatentsBy Dr. Roger Corneliussen

58 Upcoming Industry Events

60 Market Place

62 Editorial Index

64 Advertisers Index

32 36 44

DEPARTMENTS

About the cover:Interconnectedness of molding machines, auxiliaries, and… everything—that’sthe core of Industry 4.0/Internet of Things innovations; see our cover story(cover designed by SPE MarComm Team).

Thermoplastic Composites Take Off in AircraftInteriors Extending the important role that composites already play in aircraft,reinforced thermoplastics slowly move into parts & panels

By Peggy Malnati

Since the very beginnings, composites have played animportant role in aircraft construction. Although theBoeing 787 Dreamliner and Airbus A380 wide-bodied

jets have grabbed much-deserved attention in recent yearsfor their pioneering use of structural thermoset compositesin airframe construction, aircraft interiors remain a significantsegment for all composites—with opportunities for ther-moplastic composite (TPC) technologies.While composite parts used inside the cabin don’t need the

structural performance of airframe components, still theyhave their own set of demanding requirements, includingstiffness and strength at low weight, dimensional stability,durable aesthetics, chemical resistance to cleaning solvents,and stringent flame, smoke, and toxicity (FST) values.

Reportedly, thousands of kilograms of carbon fiber-rein-forced thermoset composites already are used for cabininteriors on every commercial jet, along with neat and rein-forced high-performance engineering thermoplastics.Common composites applications there include floor, ceiling, door, and sidewall panels; overhead storage bins; window surrounds; ducting and bracketry; galley and lavato-ry components; passenger-service units; and bulkheads/partitions. The very nature of the demanding FST requirements for inte-

rior parts necessitates use of high-temperature, inherentlyflame-retardant thermoplastics. These include polyetherimide(PEI), polyphenylene sulfide (PPS), polyethersulfone (PES),polyphenylsulfone (PPSU), polyetheretherketone (PEEK), and

A thermoplastic trim strip at the top of an overhead storage bin inside the Boeing 737 jet (image courtesy of Ed Turner/TheBoeing Co.).

04-09 Malnati_046854 IndustryNews.QXD 4/19/16 11:50 AM Page 4

polyetherketoneketone (PEKK), plus polycarbonate (PC) andpolyamide (PA or nylon). Owing to their relatively high stiffness,these materials are often used unreinforced in injection-mold-ed or thermoformed covers, window shades, glazing, lighting,and signage.With the introduction of thermoplastic tapes, thermoplas-

tic prepreg, and long-fiber thermoplastics (LFT) impregnatedwith these high-temperature resins and reinforced with con-tinuous or discontinuous carbon fiber, TPCs have slowlybegun expanding in this segment. They’re initially replacing alu-minum and titanium fasteners and smaller structural elementsfor seating and carts, as well as cores for sandwich-panelstructures, eventually displacing some thermoset composites.Now there are even TPC applications on plane exteriors andin fasteners for the airframe itself. Why the change?

The Case for TPCsVersus aerospace-grade thermoset composites, high-per-formance TPCs generally provide higher toughness (impactstrength), lower mass, and better surfaces out of the press(reducing finishing costs/time). And most provide excellentthermal stability at elevated temperatures.TPCs mold faster, so they provide opportunities to lower

part costs, since they arrive at the fabricator pre-polymerizedand don’t require extra time to build chain length and cross-link density as thermosets do. Also, they don’t requirerefrigeration prior to use and have extremely long shelf-lifeat room temperature, so there’s no concern about perform-ance of material that’s been stored half a year or longer, ascan be the case with thermosets.Depending on part requirements, scrap and off-spec TPC

parts can be remelted and reformed, allowing recyclingopportunities—whether in aircraft or other industries—help-ing reduce material costs and avoid the expense of landfillingoffal.Automated processes like compression and injection mold-

ing are capable of high-to-very-high levels of part complexityat medium-to-high production speeds. This means designerscan consolidate numerous subassemblies. This lowers toolingcosts and boosts quality by reducing stack-tolerance issues, allwhile reducing inventory and assembly steps and hence costand mass. It also helps offset the generally higher raw-mate-rial costs for these thermoplastic polymers. Furthermore, opportunities to join parts via welding tech-

niques (instead of or in combination with mechanical fastenersor structural adhesives) presents additional ways to trimcosts and production speeds. “Airframe manufacturers are operating at historically high

production rates, yet are being asked by customers to reducethe cost of planes,” notes Jim Griffing, technical fellow, 777XMaterials & Processes, The Boeing Co., and SPE past president.“This is driving the industry to look for faster processing times,reduced tooling costs, and lower raw-material costs while

still meeting regulatory requirements, as well as aesthetics,durability, and safety standards.”Griffing notes that weight and cost remain important for

materials selection, as do appearance and durability. “We’realso seeing more aggressive cleaning agents being used insome regions, so must choose materials accordingly. Andrecent trends for whiter, brighter colors on aircraft interiorshave proven difficult to attain while meeting fire-worthiness,solvent-resistance, and mechanical-property requirements.”

Challenging Market ConditionsDespite a solid value proposition, TPC adoption in aircraftinteriors remains slow, and present market conditionsaren’t helping. “Given the current value of fuel, which isexpected to stay low for at least another year, new composite

PEI is used in sandwich composites on cabin interiors as thematrix of laminate skins, and also for foam or honeycombcores (images courtesy of SABIC).

interior applications are a tough sell,” notes Chris Red, prin-cipal, Composites Forecasts and Consulting, LLC.The value of fuel savings seems to be a “no-brainer” at $3

USD/gallon, but market acceptance and adoption haven’treflected this. With fuel costs now one-third what they weretwo years ago, the motivation to displace legacy compo-nents with lighter composites just isn’t there. Red adds thatone reason is the component lifecycle differences betweeninteriors (2-8 years) and airframe structures (20-30 years).Unless TPC parts offer initial cost parity plus fuel savings, it’sunlikely they’ll be approved until crude oil prices return to$80+/barrel, except for drop-in solutions that improve func-tionality (e.g., in-flight infotainment or increased seatingdensity without compromising passenger comfort).“With airlines looking at historically low financing costs,

combined with unprecedented profitability due to the rap-id decline in fuel costs, the motivation is to retire old aircraftwhile long-term fleet replacement costs remain attractive. Ofcourse, if fuel prices return to where they were a few yearsago, the incentive for change will return.”What follows are some interesting applications and mate-

rials that are available when market conditions improve.

Foam Cores and Composite SkinsPEI (Ultem resin from SABIC) is used for both rigid foam coresand unidirectional carbon fiber-reinforced skins (like Cetexlaminates from TenCate Advanced Composites) for numer-ous panel structures on aircraft interiors. Compared witharamid honeycomb, PEI foam provides full FST and U.S.Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) heat-release compli-ance, lower moisture absorption, better energy absorption,low dielectric loss, and easier manufacturing.And compared with thermoset prepreg, PEI laminates

reduce labor-intensive hand layup, weigh up to 30% less, andare available pre-colored in hues ranging from near-white toblack. This eliminates the need to paint storage bins, floor-ing, and galley carts or, when paint is required, eliminates theneed for primer.Tubus Bauer GmbH also partnered with TenCate and

SABIC to produce lightweight PEI honeycomb panels toreplace aluminum and thermoset honeycomb. The PEI-intensive sandwich reportedly meets more stringent FSTstandards, eliminates secondary operations, and allows theentire panel to be thermoformed.

Thermoplastic Composites Take Off in Aircraft Interiors ___________

While not an aircraft cabin application, anotherinteresting use of TPC is for access hatches onpontoons (“floats”) for amphibious Kodiak planes

by Quest Aircraft Co. The doors allow crew to check thatpontoons (produced by Wipaire, Inc.) remain watertight, andthey must support the weight of embarking/disembarkingpassengers.

Incumbent aluminum was replaced by compression-molded 30-wt% chopped carbon fiber-reinforcedpolypropylene. Given the harsh conditions such aircraftoften fly into and out of, reducing mass on the 36- x 42-cmhatches (three per pontoon, six per plane) was beneficial,as was the ability to increase hatch strength and durabili-ty at lower cost.

Compression-molded carbon fiber-reinforced PP reportedly reduced weight and cost while improving strength of hatchdoors on pontoons for amphibious planes (images courtesy of Plasticomp (left) and Wipaire (right)).

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Thermoplastic Composites Take Off in Aircraft Interiors ___________

Meanwhile, Solvay just announced that its closed-cellTegraCore PPSU foam has obtained qualification from AirbusSAS for use in applications ranging from ducting to sandwich-panel components requiring excellent resistance to fire,impact, and chemicals. It’s already used for cabin componentson Airbus’ flagship A350 XWB wide-body jets and floor pan-els on the Solar Impulse 2 long-range experimentalsolar-powered aircraft. Its approval shows Solvay can producethe material repeatably in an aerospace-compliant processwith excellent quality control, and paves the way for its useon other Airbus aircraft.TegraCore foam is based on super-tough Radel PPSU,

which reportedly offers excellent FST values and resists

water uptake, aggressive chemicals, and temperatures rang-ing from -40 to 204°C. Plus it’s exceptionally damage tolerant,thanks to a polymer structure that prevents uncontrolledcrack propagation after impact.In solid form, PPSU has been used for structural and dec-

orative aircraft-interior components for over 25 years.(TegraCore is part of Solvay’s new and evolving Tegralitefamily of semi-finished thermoplastic lightweighting mate-rials launched last year targeting the aerospace industry.)

TPCs in SeatingTPCs were the focus of a development project for aircraftseating involving BASF Corp., Plasticomp, Inc., and anunnamed seat supplier. The program compared performanceof PES, PEI, and PEEK in pelletized LFT grades reinforced with30-wt% chopped carbon fiber for injection molded seatspreaders and arm rests on wide-body jets. The eight-monthaccelerated development program involved material selec-tion and testing, tooling and part design, and CAE analysis,as well as prototype molding. The goal was to reduce com-ponent mass 30% or more vs. incumbent aluminum.BASF’s FST-compliant Ultrason E 3010 PES reportedly was

selected for improved fiber/matrix adhesion, yielding partswith high strength/weight ratios. Not only was the mass-reduction target met with similar mechanical performance,but this was accomplished roughly at cost parity on a systemsbasis—despite little opportunity to modify the legacy alu-minum design, other than parts consolidation and minorchanges to facilitate molding.Although the parts aren’t yet commercial, they’ve passed

demanding 16G kinetic testing and achieved FAR 25.853approval. Additional programs with other seat suppliers arereportedly underway.

Closed-cell TegraCore PPSU foam provides excellent resistance to fire, impact, and chemicals for applications ranging fromducting to panels on aircraft interiors (images courtesy of Solvay).

Injection molded carbon fiber-reinforced PES reducedweight 30% compared with aluminum, at cost parity forseat spreaders (shown here) and arm rests (images courtesyof Plasticomp).

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Keeping Up with “Smarter” MachinesDriven by “Industry 4.0,” injection molding machines and theirperipherals seek total integration

By Jan H. Schut

COVER STORY

Integrated injection molding through “Industry 4.0” and “Internet of Things” innovation is driving productivity improvements.

10-17 Cover Story_046854 IndustryNews.QXD 4/19/16 6:16 AM Page 10

“4.0” and 2001’s “HAL”the term Industry 4.0 originated with the report of a Work-ing Group on Industry to the German government, presentedat the Hannover Fair in Germany in 2013. the groupannounced a fourth industrial revolution, hence the “4.0”name, and predicted it would change the world as much asthe first three revolutions had. the phenomenon of inter-machine communication is also called the Internet of Things,or “Iot,” a term supposedly coined by an executive at Proc-ter & Gamble in a presentation in 1999.

Industry 4.0 and Iot refer to increasingly automatic com-munication among “smart” machines using computers,sensors, closed-loop controls, the Internet, and cloud-baseddata storage, so individual machines and entire factoriescan make routine decisions independent from humans. thegoal is greater efficiency, and it’s been wholeheartedly adopt-ed by injection molding machine builders, giving a name toa lot of advanced controls they were developing anyway.

With the K show coming up this October in Germany, injec-tion molding machine builders are busy reclassifying a hostof products as Industry 4.0 initiatives. But “4.0” means dif-ferent things in different companies and organizations,depending on what they make and do.

It’s not a new vision. Movie director stanley Kubrick gaveus the controlling, intelligent machine named “HAl” in themovie 2001: A Space Odyssey, filmed back in 1968—now con-sidered one of the most influential films of all time.

since the 1990s, there have been Space Odyssey-style, inter-connected, computer-controlled “lights out” factories inJapan, Europe, and the UsA, with just-in-time manufacturingof small orders, automatic mold changes, automatic mate-rial handling, and part unloading and packing. so Industry4.0 and IoT are catchwords for developments that have beengoing on for decades.

Understanding Industry 4.0Characteristics of “4.0” include hierarchic integration ofmachines under either a primary machine control or linkedthrough interfaces. At Wittmann Battenfeld GmbH, Industry4.0 means integrating house brands of robots and auxiliaryequipment under injection molding machine control.

the process began in 2008. Wittmann, a maker of robotsand auxiliary equipment, acquired injection molding machine-maker Battenfeld, and integrated robot control under thecomputer built into Battenfeld’s Power series of all-electricmolding machines. since then Wittmann Battenfeld has inte-grated controls on its tempro mold-temperature controllers,Gravimax gravimetric blenders, Flowcon automatic waterflow regulators, and, later this year, Drymax dryers. the

www.plasticsengineering.org | www.4spe.org | MAY 2016 | PlAstICs EnGInEErInG | 11

Considering that steam power brought the first industrialrevolution in the 1700s, electricity brought the second inthe 1800s, and computing brought the third in the 1900s,

German industry may be slightly pushing the envelope to say thatgrowing communication among machines amounts to a fourthindustrial revolution. But that’s what “Industry 4.0” means.

At Wittmann Battenfeld, Industry 4.0 means hierarchic controlof auxiliaries under the computer controls in Battenfeld’sPower series of all-electric injection molding machines, whichadjust all machine settings automatically after mold ormaterial changes (image courtesy of the company).

company is also working with Prophecy sensorlytics on sen-sor controls for automatic machine diagnostics andpreventative maintenance.

in industry 4.0, fully networked production lines can con-trol smaller and smaller batches down to a single unit, drivenby demand. arburg gmbH + co Kg planned to demonstrateunit production at the Hannover Fair in april. the companyis combining an all-electric allrounder 370E injection molding machine with its Freeformer for additive manu-facturing—plus a new “smart” seven-axis “iiwa” (intelligentindustrial work assistant) robot from KUKa roboter gmbH—to make personalized scissors. Visitors choose the scissorsthey want—pointed or round, left- or right-handed—then,on a tablet Pc, they enter the letters they want to appearon their scissors. the correct scissor blades are roboticallyinserted into the molding machine, overmolded, removedby the robot, and put into the Freeformer, which identifiesthe part and adds the right 3-D letters.

Humans aren’t totally out of the “4.0” picture. they canwork side-by-side with new “collaborative” robots withouta safety enclosure. collaborative robots have existed forsome time by modifying standard robots with scanners and

light screens as a safety function that shuts them down if aperson gets too close. But a new class of “power and forcelimited” collaborative robots was introduced three yearsago, like KUKa’s “iiwa” robot, in response to new industrialstandards.

Most power and force limited robots are small; Fanuccorp., however, last year introduced its cr-35ia with a 35-kg payload, reportedly the biggest power and force limitedrobot in the industry. it’s programmed with either optionalhand guiding hardware or a standard teaching pendant.Fanuc also introduced three smaller power and force limit-ed robots: the cr-7ia with a 7-kg payload, cr-7ial with along arm, and cr-4ia with a 4-kg payload. all will be availablelater this year, the company says. (Fanuc’s collaborativerobots are green to distinguish them from its non-collabo-rative robots, which are painted yellow.)

industry 4.0 initiatives for smart machines and factoriesdon’t require a particular machine type, but can use all-elec-tric, hydraulic, or hybrid injection molding machines. in fact,a new classification of “all-electric” injection molding machinesthat are not 100% electric was recently adopted by the VDMagerman Engineering Federation. injection molding machines

with electric drives on clamping,injection forward, and screwmovement—but hydraulics oncore ejectors—can now be clas-sified as all-electric. Previously,all-electric injection moldingmachines had to have all fouraxes of movement fully electric.so now when a machine builderwants to say a machine has nohydraulics, they call it “100%electric.”

For example, Zhafir PlasticsMachinery gmbH, a unit ofabsolute Haitian corp. in china,the world’s largest builder ofinjection molding machines,introduced its Zeres moldingmachines in north america atnPE 2015. Zeres machines arelike Zhafir’s Venus “100% elec-tric” line, but have integratedhydraulic ejectors, so, under thenew VDMa classification, theycan still be called “all-electric.”

12 | Plastics EnginEEring | MaY 2016 | www.4spe.org | www.plasticsengineering.org

Keeping Up with “Smarter” Machines __________________________________________

Industry 4.0 also means fully networked production of smaller and smaller batches, down tounit size. Arburg is demonstrating the unit production of scissors with overmolded grips andindividual 3-D printed lettering. (Image courtesy of Arburg.)

Self-Adjusting MachinesAnother “4.0” characteristic is self-correcting moldingmachines that don’t require operator adjustment. The goalis to create a “smart” factory in which molding machinesoptimize their own settings automatically to increase pro-ductivity. Engel Austria GmbH is bundling its existingnetworked, self-adjusting control products under a new“inject 4.0” brand. This includes Engel’s iQ weight controlintroduced in 2012, e-flomo temperature control of moldcooling water introduced in 2014, and iQ clamp control intro-duced at Fakuma 2015.The iQ clamp has a new “intelligent” algorithm using data

from existing sensors to set the lowest possible clamp forcefor maximum injection speed automatically, based on meas-uring “mold breathing” with existing sensors on the machine.Mold breathing is the change in mold height as melt is com-pressed by clamp force, compared to a base deflectionnumber for the same mold empty. The iQ clamp is availablefor electrical clamping units of up to 2200 kN.

____________________________________________________________________________

“Industry 4.0” is also the new catch phrase for “smart”machines like Fanuc’s new “power and force limited” CR-35iAcollaborative robot. The CR-35iA reportedly lifts the highestpayload in the industry (35 kg) for this type of robot, and canwork side-by-side with humans without a safety enclosure.(Photo courtesy of Fanuc.)

“Maybe 50% of molders use too high clamp force,” esti-mates georg Steinbichler, r&D director at Engel. “If clamptonnage is too high, it slows down filling. The challenge inpackaging is for molders to find what clamp force they real-ly need.”

Krauss Maffei gmbH introduced its self-adjusting Adap-tive Process control a year and a half ago at Fakuma 2014.APc automatically keeps part weight constant with everyshot, rather than keeping machine settings constant. APcmeasures melt viscosity for every shot while the first 95% of

the melt is filling the cavity, using the injection mold itself forflow resistance, like a capillary rheometer. APc also meas-ures and accounts for backflow as the non-return valve closes.

Then APc calculates actual viscosity of that shot and com-pares it to a reference viscosity. If actual viscosity is lower,APc decreases the injection stroke for mold filling. If actualviscosity is higher, APc increases the injection stroke. Previ-ously when machine settings were constant, part weightcould vary if viscosity varied, for example when processingrecycled material. The program was developed and field test-

14 | PLASTIcS ENgINEErINg | MAY 2016 | www.4spe.org | www.plasticsengineering.org

Zhafir’s new Zeres line of injection molding machines integrates hydraulic cores into its all-electric Venus line. Under a recentclassification change in Germany, even with hydraulic core integration, Zeres machines can still be classified as “all-electric.”(Photo courtesy of Haitian.)

Melt injection is going faster to achieve higher ratiosof flow length to wall thickness (L/T), which allowsdeeper thin-wall parts. But when machine

builders provide melt-injection speeds for moldingmachines, some give peak speed, some give average speed(including mold resistance), and some even give speedwithout a mold. A high ratio of flow length to wall thick-ness in an actual application is more indicative of highinjection speed.

Two years ago, Stork IMM B.V. in the Netherlandsachieved an L/T ratio of 350:1 for 10-liter thin-walled flowertubs with wall thickness of 0.7 mm, which Stork believes isone of the highest L/T ratios in the industry for this kind ofproduct. Filling time was 80 milliseconds, using multiplehigh-flow valves and a 98-mm screw. Injection speed in theapplication was measured at 800 mm/sec.

Last year, BMB S.p.A. in Italy showed a 1000-ton hybridmolding machine at NPE 2015 molding six-quart washbasins in a 2+2 stack mold with 0.31-mm wall thicknessand an L/T ratio of 315:1, running in 5.6-second cycles. BMBuses direct-drive synchronous servo motors, and convertscircular motion to linear motion using satellite roller screwswith threaded rollers between the screw and nut, not ballscrews. The ejectors and screw rotation use torque motors.

And about two years ago, JSW Plastics Machinery Inc.announced a substantially higher standard injection speedfor its AES fifth-generation all-electric injection moldingmachines of 500 mm/sec.—up from 300 mm/sec.—for 220-450 metric ton machines, primarily for thin-wall packaging.The higher injection speed is supported by more power-ful servo motors and faster Android-based computercontrols with JSW’s new Syscom 5000i controller.

Faster Injection Speeds, Higher L/T Ratios

10-17 Cover Story_046854 IndustryNews.QXD 4/19/16 12:03 PM Page 14

ed with KtW Kunststofftechnik Weissenburg gmbH to reducescrap from parts that were out-of-spec because of weightvariations.

Athena Automation ltd., a canadian maker of custom injec-tion molding machines, is building two new multi-materialmachines: one for rotary stack molds with parallel injectionunits for a more compact machine footprint, the other forintegrated cube molds using Athena’s new stack mold carri-er with connections through a rotary union in the center.

Ohio-based Milacron launched r Monitoring at nPE 2015to monitor and optimize injection molding machines, includ-ing remote monitoring services and data analysis in the“cloud.” Mold-Masters ltd., a Milacron brand, also introducedsmartMold at nPE 2015, a small, powerful Pc with integrat-ed sensors on hot runners—strain gauge, accelerometer,and thermocouples—to measure performance, predict wear,and call for preventative maintenance. r Monitoring andsmartMold are reportedly both in beta test sites. Both areplatforms for “smart” connected products, which will even-tually be used in all Milacron products.

And niigata Machine techno co. ltd., in Japan, introducedits seventh-generation MD 7000 series in 2015. it allowssmart remote-monitoring via a Pc, tablet, or smartphoneand a cloud-based service system, which retains a machine’scomplete maintenance history.

Stretching Molding Machine Flexibilitystandard injection machines are also being adapted to donon-standard molding. A new auxiliary device from toshiba

Machine co. reduces the diameter of an injection moldingunit by more than half. the new Flexible injection Downsizekit adapts a standard toshiba injection molding machine toa smaller screw diameter for applications like tiny complexparts that require a larger mold space than would fit on amicromolding machine. the company introduced its FiDskit at the MD&M West show in california in February on a 110-ton toshiba sX ii machine with a standard injection unit fora 36-mm screw, downsized to an 18-mm screw.

the sX ii series is also new and comes in 30- to 250-tonsizes, with larger sizes planned. toshiba has two sX iimachines in production with FiDs kits, combining 120- and140-ton clamps with 15- and 18-mm injection screws, respec-tively, downsized from 45-mm screws. FiDs kits have beencommercially available for two years.

A novel compression stack mold for thin-wall packaginginvented by French moldmaker Plastisud sAs allows a small-er press to mold more and bigger parts. netstal MaschinenAg, a unit of Krauss Maffei, showed Plastisud’s unusual com-pression stack mold on netstal’s Elion 2800-2000 injectionmolding machine at Fakuma 2015. it injection-compressionmolded margarine tubs in a 4+4-cavity stack mold with twoparting lines, reportedly a world’s first.

since the technology leaves no sprues or flash and allowsthinner part walls, it reportedly saves up to 20% on materi-al, compared with conventional thin-wall injection molding.low-pressure filling of compression molds uses 40% lessclamp force, so a smaller clamping unit can be used.Machines Pages s.A. developed automation for in-mold label-ing with compression molds, which is also new.

Moldmaker Plastisud in France built an unusual stack moldfor the injection-compression molding of margarine tubswith two parting lines, demonstrated by Netstal at Fakuma2015 in Germany and claimed to be a “world’s first” (photocourtesy of Netstal).

____________________________________________________________________________

Toshiba’s new Flexible Injection Downsize kit adapts astandard injection molding machine to less than half itsoriginal screw diameter, allowing it to mold tiny detailedparts that require larger mold space than a micromoldingmachine has (photo courtesy of Toshiba).

www.plasticsengineering.org | www.4spe.org | MAY 2016 | PlAstics EnginEEring | 15

At its “Technology Days” in March, with 550 guests,Arburg premiered its Allrounder Golden Electricentry-level electric molding machines, available in

four sizes. The company says the line emulates the quali-ties of its hydraulic Golden Edition series: “The newAllrounders are designed to meet customer demand forhigh-performance entry-level machines for the precise,energy-efficient production of sophisticated molded parts.”The Allrounder Golden Electric uses consistent stan-

dardization to offer an excellent price/performance ratio,the company says, through a fixed combination of distancebetween tie-bars, clamping force, and injection unit size,for example. The new machines are available with clamp-ing forces of 600, 1000, 1500, and 2000 kN, and are designedfor standard applications in thermoplastics processing.The series features liquid-cooled motors and servo invert-

ers, offering energy efficiency and short dry cycle times.Arburg says they require 55% less energy, compared tostandard hydraulic machines, given the servo motors, con-tinuous power adaptation, and energy recovery duringbraking.Meeting the demand for a comprehensive machine size

range to meet practical requirements in international mar-kets, Arburg claims the Golden Electric series “comes atexactly the right time.” An increasing number of process-ing companies are interested in electric machines thatcombine features such as precision, energy economy, andreproducibility at a low cost for standard applications.

Also at the Technology Days, Arburg made several oth-er announcements and had several speakers. On the eveof the event, the company officially opened its new assem-bly hall, which adds 18,600 m2 to the total floorspaceavailable at its headquarters in Lossburg, Germany, expand-ing it to a total of 165,000 m2.Then high-profile speakers like SPI president William R.

Carteaux and Thorsten Kühmann, managing director ofthe VDMA Plastics and Rubber Machinery Association, com-mented on the company’s successes. “German machinemanufacturers such as Arburg are successful because theirapproach is sustainable in every respect,” said Kühmann.“The focus remains on the family-run company and an

understanding of the needs of customers. The companyalso has the right team and the right concept, while notlosing sight of the importance of the environment and for-ward planning.” Kühmann cited as examples the company’sadditive manufacturing system and its concept for Indus-try 4.0, as well as its injection molding machines.Another announcement involved the first official appear-

ance by Gerhard Böhm as managing director of sales. Böhmtakes over for Helmut Heinson, who’s retiring. Arburg man-aging partner Juliane Hehl thanked Heinson for hisconstructive work over the past eleven years: “Together wehave made this time very successful for our company.”–Ed.

“Golden” Technology Days at Arburg

Arburg presented its new Allrounder “Golden Electric”molding machines at its recent Technology Days

New Arburg managing director Gerhard Böhm in front ofan Allrounder Golden Electric machine.

10-17 Cover Story_046854 IndustryNews.QXD 4/19/16 1:08 PM Page 17

Data is Power in Dosing and BlendingInterconnected control systems and optimized data access can beused to improve process efficiency

By Jennifer Markarian

Plastics processors expect a lot from their dosing andblending equipment. Flexibility, modularity, clean-ability, and quick changeovers are key. And equipment

must be able to handle whatever fillers or additives theprocessor wants to add. Moreover, “Data collection andintegration into plant-wide control systems for process val-idation is a standard, and ease to integrate is assumed.Accuracy is a must,” says John Winski, director of sales atCoperion K-Tron. Chris Crittenden, marketing director at Maguire Products,

agrees that high accuracy is standard: “Accuracy is oftenhighlighted as ‘improved’ in the market for blending and dos-ing systems. Yet in reality, once you are accurate to +/-0.1%of a 1% setting (in grams), then, practically speaking in realproduction terms, it doesn’t get any more accurate.”Accuracy is crucial because dosing is the input to the plas-

tics compounding, extrusion, or molding process. Efficientlyproducing a high-quality product requires a high level of con-trol right from the start, in the dosing and blending step.Today, there’s an increasing focus on collecting, analyzing, andusing data to improve process efficiency.

The Internet of ThingsThe industrial Internet of Things (IoT)—a.k.a. “Industry 4.0,”a network of equipment that’s connected using informa-tion technology—helps make data available. IoT enablesprocess engineers to view and even control a plastics process,including dosing and blending equipment, anytime and any-where using mobile devices. “IoT puts real-time informationin the hands of process engineers so they can manage theirprocess and bring value to customers,” says Mike Rasner,president and CEO at Advanced Blending Systems. Crittenden says that a benefit of IoT is in broader data

access. “Improved accessibility and better methods of con-nectivity will simplify how different users read and seeproduction data, allowing them to understand production

The Simplicity low-throughput (SL) blender from AdvancedBlending Systems is a gravimetric, continuous loss-in-weightblender for applications such as laboratory systems ormulti-layer film extrusion. The SL blender incorporates data-collection technology and is designed to be lightweight,compact, safe, and user friendly, the company says. (Photocourtesy of the company.)

18-21 Markarian_046854 IndustryNews.QXD 4/19/16 6:16 AM Page 18

costs and efficiency and to troubleshoot more rapidly.” Sim-plified data will benefit those who perhaps previously wouldnot have understood the technical side of blending. “IoTwill give processors in additional fields the confidence to workwith material blends more directly and to consider morediverse materials or additives to improve product featuresand achieve cost savings,” he explains.

IoT is beginning to change the paradigm of how usersinteract with data, agrees Winski. “Historically, control equip-ment for manufacturing processes have generatedtremendous amounts of real-time data for customers, but leftit to the user to design how frequently to examine and usethe data. The controls acted as a server and simply made thedata available.”

IoT, however, “allows a user to indicate what is importantto them once, and the control systems push that informa-tion to them when it is relevant,” Winski adds. “This allowsusers with different roles within the manufacturing processto subscribe to different information and trends that mightbe important to them.” For example, maintenance engi-neers can receive alarm conditions, while materials plannerscan receive data on total material fed over a given time-frame.

“The Internet of Things is dramatically changing howmachines communicate and exchange data with each oth-er and with the people who use them,” says Bob Criswell,manager, Electrical Engineering, at Conair. “Most of today’scontrol systems are designed for Ethernet connectivity, andthrough industrial networks and the Internet they can con-nect and communicate with almost any other device. We canuse that technology to significantly reduce costs and increaseease of use, maintenance, and integration.”

“Supervisory” FunctionsIn 2015, Conair introduced a new generation of its Control-Works plant-wide control platform, which has been availablesince 2006 to monitor and remotely control plastics pro-cessing equipment. The latest version uses supervisorycontrol and data acquisition (SCADA) technology, whichgives users the ability to look at more than one piece of equip-ment at a time and drill down as necessary to findinformation on individual machines. SCADA also allows Con-trolWorks to gather process data from all connectedequipment and store it for analysis.

The company also introduced a tablet-based system thatcan replace the human-machine interface (HMI) panels thatare found on almost all equipment. A single, standard tabletcomputer can be programmed to address the controls onmultiple pieces of equipment control so that it becomesthe HMI for each of them, thus saving significantly on the costof touchscreen HMIs, says the company. According to Conair,“Supervisors and other employees authorized to perform set-up and maintenance simply carry a tablet with them into the

plant and connect quickly and easily to any equipment thatrequires attention.”

Making data accessible to users is crucial. “The majortrend that we see in gravimetric blending and dosing is theneed to simplify the process on the production floor, whilealso optimizing material usage efficiency,” says Maguire’s Crit-tenden. “We are focused on users and their ability to easilyget things done, and that means simple interfaces and easycontrols that are intuitive for all operators.” At the sametime, visualization of production is increasingly important.

Crittenden notes that small- to medium-sized businessesneed effective data access that isn’t overly costly or compli-cated, and larger enterprises need solutions that let thembetter manage production by harnessing materials usagedata. Maguire’s mainstream gravimetric blender range nowcomes standard with upgraded control features and inter-faces. For example, touchscreen interfaces have new graphicsand pages. “The user is only ever one or two screens awayfrom any required feature,” he adds.

Harnessing Data PowerMost processes have closed-loop advanced control, in whichdata from measurements on the extruder is used to adjustfeeders and keep the process in spec. Analyzing feeder datatrends allows users to continually improve process effi-ciency. Another use of feeder data is to validate quality.

Efficient Color Dosing

Riverdale Global’s RGInfinity automatic drum-refillsystem for liquid colors was introduced in January2016. It improves the efficiency of a molding or

extrusion process by eliminating downtime for switchingliquid-color drums, the company says, and reducing tran-sitional or off-specification product made during drumchanges.

The company supplies liquid color in patented, pump-equipped drums that remain sealed to eliminate spills andleaks (sometimes a housekeeping issue with liquid color).The sealed auto-refill system eliminates the need toreplace these drums when empty by instead refillingthem from a large central container (i.e., tote), which canserve one or multiple machines.

“Besides preventing downtime, the RGInfinity auto-refill system eliminates the time and labor required foroperators to monitor color levels [and] transport andprepare replacement drums,” says Kevin Cabana, RiverdaleGlobal vice president of process technologies. “Also pre-vented is the human error that creeps in during theseprocedures, particularly when there are multiple drumsmetering color to multiple processing machines.”

“Processors need to be able to look at either real-time orhistorical data (e.g., rate vs. set-point), and be able to do itquickly and easily,” says Rasner of Advanced Blending Sys-tems. “We have offered this data collection technology withour feeders for more than eight years, but more customersare now seeing the value in it. For example, if there is aquality issue or complaint, they can pull up the data and seewhether additives were added to the blend at the correct lev-el. We see this being increasingly important in applicationssuch as food packaging.”Some are taking data use a step further and using it for

real-time release, adds Rasner. For instance, rather thantesting a film sample in a quality assurance lab, critical qual-ity attributes can be measured in real-time on the extrusionline to ensure product quality.

Smart FeedersCoperion K-Tron’s ActiFlow technology is an example ofcombining sensor data and control systems to make a

“smart” feeder. Today, many compounding processes use Act-iFlow to improve feeding of poorly flowing powder materials,says Winski. For example, if arching occurs in the hopper, thelack of flow is sensed by the weighing system, and the Acti-Flow controller applies more vibration to the hopper tobreak the arch. Once the flow is again consistent, the systemreduces the hopper vibration.The company recently introduced another sensing and con-

trol technology: Electronic Pressure Compensation (EPC).Pressure compensation is needed for gravimetric feeders thatare part of a closed system, where changes in pressurewithin the feeder hopper or discharge tube can cause anincorrect weight signal. EPC detects air pressure build-upinside a feeder and adjusts the weight signal accordingly tocompensate. It offers advantages over traditional mechan-ical pressure compensation systems, the company says,such as improved accuracy and reliability, as well as lower ini-tial cost and easier installation. With such “smart” operation of feeding equipment com-

bined with data accessibility, equipment users have theopportunity to make intelligent decisions to run their process-es optimally.

Data is Power in Dosing and Blending__________________________

Serial Weight Channel

Motor Power/Speed Pickup

ExtensionHopper

WeighingSystemEPC

PressureSensor

Feeder

This diagram shows the principle of Electronic PressureCompensation (EPC) in a gravimetric feeding system (imagecourtesy of Coperion K-Tron).

Coperion K-Tron’s ActiFlow combines sensor data and controlsystems for “smart” feeding (photo courtesy of the company).

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Foaming Up NicelyInjection molded foams are worth their weight in resin savings, butstill have much room for improvement

By Jon Evans

Over the past few years, foam injection molding (FIM)has more than proven its worth in terms of reducedmaterial use and ease of processing. Injecting a mix

of a molten polymer and a gas such as nitrogen or carbondioxide into a mold produces a foam that travels through themold faster and easier than molten polymer on its own,enhancing the speed and efficiency of the mold-filling process.

Because foam inherently contains less material than a sol-id polymer, components produced by this process contain lessmaterial, usually 10-30% less. These components are notentirely made of foam, though, as an FIM process typically pro-duces a combination of foam and solid polymer, in which afoam core is surrounded by a solid outer layer of polymer. Thiscreates components that are just as strong as those produced

Many plastic components in automobiles, such as engine covers and fanshrouds, are made using foam injection molding (FIM). (All images in thisarticle courtesy of Trexel, except as noted.)

22-27 Evans_046854 IndustryNews.QXD 4/19/16 6:15 AM Page 22

by conventional injection molding but suffer less fromwarpage and the formation of dents known as sink marks.

Current State of the ArtSeveral methods for conducting FIM have been developed.Perhaps the best known is the MuCell® microcellular foam-ing technology from the U.S. company Trexel, which originallylicensed the technology from the Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology (MIT) in 1995.

Trexel produces foaming units that fit onto standard injec-tion molding machines. They mix a huge range of differentpolymers, including high-density polyethylene, polyvinylchloride, and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), withsupercritical nitrogen or CO2. These units contain a special-ly designed mixing section able to produce a single-phasesolution of gas and molten polymer, ensuring the creationof a high-quality homogenous foam of fully enclosed bubbles,known as closed cells, inside the mold. Trexel has formedalliances with several manufacturers of injection moldingmachines, including Milacron, Engel, and Arburg, allowingthese manufacturers to provide complete integrated systemsfor FIM.

But FIM can also be done in an unmodified injection mold-ing machine. In this case, rather than mix the molten polymerdirectly with a gas, a solid chemical foaming agent is addedto the polymer granules. When the granules are melted in thebarrel of the molding machine, the applied heat also caus-es the solid foaming agent to break down, and as it does itreleases a gas, again usually nitrogen or carbon dioxide.This released gas then mixes with the molten polymer beforeit’s injected into the mold.

Companies such as the U.S. firm Bergen Internationalproduce a range of solid foaming agents for FIM, designedfor specific polymers and applications and for producingfoams with bubbles, or cells, of different sizes. These agentscan be either exothermic or endothermic, depending onwhether the decomposition reaction, once triggered, releas-es energy or not. Exothermic agents include hydrazides andazo compounds and tend to produce nitrogen, whileendothermic agents are based on the classic foaming agentsused in cooking, such as bicarbonate and citric acid, and tendto produce CO2.

Manufacturers of everything from automobiles to foodproducts are already taking advantage of FIM. For automo-bile manufacturers, FIM offers a way to increase the fuelefficiency of vehicles by producing plastic components suchas electronics housings and sections of the console thatcontain less material, and so are lighter. Other manufacturerslike FIM’s ability to produce components that are difficult toproduce with conventional injection molding, in addition tothe time and material savings. Examples include margarinetubs with very thin walls and plastic soles for sports shoesthat are highly springy for enhanced rebound.

An illustration of the MuCell plasticizing unit (top) and howit works (middle), plus a micrograph of the resulting poly-mer foam (bottom).

Room for ImprovementDespite all these benefits, FIM still offers room for improve-ment, which both academic and industrial researchers areactively exploring. For a start, there’s much about the FIMprocess that remains shrouded in mystery, hamperingefforts to improve it. Researchers know that foaming isinstigated by the drop in pressure that occurs when themixture of molten polymer and gas enters the mold. Beforethis happens, the mixture is held at a pressure and tem-perature that keeps the gas dissolved within the moltenpolymer, but as the pressure drops, the gas comes out ofsolution to form bubbles, in the same way that bubbles ofCO2 form when opening a can of fizzy drink.The chemical mechanisms that guide the formation of

bubbles, known as nucleation, are highly complex. Theydrive the bubbles’ subsequent growth and coalescence as thefoam travels through the mold, and scientists don’t yet ful-ly understand them. But it’s these mechanisms thatdetermine the strength and quality of the resulting compo-nent.Ideally, manufacturers want the foam to have the same con-

sistency and structure throughout the entire component,which requires bubbles of a uniform size. But this can be dif-ficult to produce with FIM, because the formation and growthof the bubbles depends on the pressures and temperaturesthe foam is exposed to, and this tends to vary throughout themold and at different times during mold filling.The pressures tend to be lower in regions of the mold fur-

thest away from the gate where the polymer melt is injected.Because the foam also takes longer to reach these regions,this gives time for the bubbles to grow and coalesce, form-ing larger cells. But pressures also tend to increase over timeas the mold begins to fill up with foam, reducing the pres-sure difference between the gate and the mold, and thus therate of bubble formation. This all means that the cells in theresulting foam are often different sizes in different regionsof the component, limiting its strength and quality.

High-Pressure FIMUp to now, researchers have tended to explore the foamingprocess via computer modeling or laboratory experimentslooking at specific aspects, but recently they have begun todevelop ways to investigate what happens during industrialFIM. For example, in a recent paper in the European PolymerJournal, engineers from the University of Toronto in Canadareported producing a mold with a fused silica prism embed-ded in it.1 This allowed them to witness and record theprocesses taking place inside the mold when a mixture ofmolten polystyrene and supercritical CO2 was injected by aninjection molding machine fitted with a MuCell unit.The engineers were particularly interested in seeing how the

bubble formation process differs between low-pressure andhigh-pressure FIM. Low-pressure FIM is the conventionalversion; in high-pressure FIM, the insertion is conducted at afaster rate and at a higher packing pressure. High-pressureFIM has been shown to produce a more homogenous foamcontaining cells with a more uniform size, and the engineerswanted to find out why.They discovered that in high-pressure FIM the cell forma-

tion rate is not governed by the pressure drop as the mixtureenters the mold—because that drop is not very great—butrather by the drop in pressure caused by shrinkage as the mix-ture cools. Because this shrinkage occurs at the same ratethrough the mold, it produces cells with a more uniformsize than is possible with low-pressure FIM. Indeed, the engi-neers found that the secret to optimizing high-pressure FIMis to ensure that any bubbles that do form at the gate arequickly re-dissolved back into the molten polymer, so that allthe cells in the foam are produced by shrinkage.

Uniform BubblesAn alternative way to produce more uniform bubbles isthrough the use of nucleating agents, which are small parti-cles that act as sites for the formation of bubbles. At last year’sSPE Foams conference in Kyoto, Japan, a team of scientistsfrom Kyoto University and the car manufacturer Mazdareported the results of their study on a sorbitol-based nucle-ating agent known as Gel All MD (available from New JapanChemical Co., Ltd.). When added to a mixture of moltenpolypropylene (PP) and nitrogen, they found that this agentdecreased the size and increased the uniformity of the cellsin the foam, enhancing the foam’s flexibility by 30%. Some nucleating agents can do more than just promote

bubble formation. Towards the end of last year, Trexel signeda license for the use of an advanced type of nucleating agent

Foaming Up Nicely___________________________________________

A climate-control bezel produced with FIM.

in FIM. Marketed as TecoCell®, it comprises tiny particles ofcalcium carbonate that act as both a nucleating agent and achemical foaming agent, releasing CO2 on heating.Another novel approach to controlling cell size and uni-

formity, developed by Japanese researchers at KyotoUniversity and the Hong Kong-based technology companyHitachi Maxwell, was also unveiled at last year’s SPE Foamsmeeting. By developing a new technique for venting nitrogenfrom the barrel of an injection molding machine, theresearchers were able to control the pressure of nitrogen inthe barrel and thus its solubility in the molten polymer. Thisallowed them to alter the size of the cells in the resulting foamby simply modifying the nitrogen pressure.

Better SurfacesControlling cell uniformity is not the only challenge, howev-er. Another is finding a way to prevent the formation ofstriped marks on the surface of a component. These markscan often be hidden by subsequent texturing of the surface,but it would be better if they didn’t appear at all. They’recaused by the bubbles in the molten polymer being forcedagainst the cold mold, which produces both the solid surfaceof the foam and the marks on the surface.Recently, researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Chem-

ical Technology (ICT) in Germany have come up with a wayto prevent these marks from appearing. “We avoid formationof striations by differentially heating the tooling,” explainsAndreas Menrath, a scientist at ICT. “The polymer remainsmalleable longer due to the higher tooling temperatures itcomes into contact with during injection. The bubbles do notbecome rigid immediately, but instead the surface is pressedsmooth.”With these kind of improvements coming through, FIM

looks set to continue proving its worth for the foreseeablefuture.

References1. V. Shaayegan, G.L. Wang, and C.B. Park. “Study of the Bubble

Nucleation and Growth Mechanisms in High-Pressure FoamInjection Molding through In-Situ Visualization.” European Poly-mer Journal, 76, pp. 2-13 (2016).

2. R. Miyamoto, S. Yasuhara, H. Shikuma, and M. Ohshima.“Preparing micro/nanocellular open-pore polypropylene foam.”SPE Plastics Research Online (2013), www.4spepro.org/pdf/005192/005192.pdf downloaded 4 April 2016.

Scanning electron microscope images of a foamed PP sam-ple using a Gel All MD nucleating agent: Image (a) is perpen-dicular and image (c) is parallel to the core-back moldingdirection. The higher-magnification image (b) shows themicrovoids and nanofibrils on the cell wall. (Images cour-tesy of SPE Plastics Research Online.2)

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The Incumbent Resin Effect for Single-ScrewExtrusion of PE ResinsDon’t blame the “challenger resin” for contamination and gels whenswitching resins in polyethylene film production

By Mark A. Spalding1, Qian Gou1, Xiaofei Sun1, and Qing Shi21The Dow Chemical Company, Midland, Michigan, USA

2The Dow Chemical Company, Shanghai, China

Note: This is a version of the authors’ ANTEC® Indianapolis 2016paper, specially abridged for Plastics Engineering. As of presstime, the paper was scheduled to be delivered at ANTEC at 2:30on Tuesday, May 24.

New and innovative film products are constantly pro-duced on pilot and manufacturing lines using eithera cast or blown film process. Many times these

films will be sent to end users for evaluation. Acceptablequality and properties of the films are keys to the successof the new film product. Most of the time the new film pro-duced has acceptable quality (very low gels) and physicalproperties. Alternatively, the incumbent resin may bereplaced with a challenger resin as a method to removecost from the product.The term “gel” is commonly used to refer to any small

defect that distorts a film product, reducing the quality ofthe film. There are many types of gels.1-3 The gels that areimportant to this discussion are those that are generatedin the channels of the extruder screw due to long residencetimes and typically oxygen exposure of the resin:• highly oxidized polymeric materials that appear as brittle

black specks, and • polymeric materials that are crosslinked via an oxidative

process and appear as soft gels. Soft gels often have a brown color. Improperly designed

extrusion equipment and processes are common and can

lead to the oxidative degradation of PE resins and crosslinkedgels.2For most cases, the incumbent resin has been running on

the film line for extended periods of time, producing a prod-uct with an acceptable quality. Here the gel level would berelatively low, with only minor levels of black specks andbrown soft gels. The gels would likely originate from regionsof the screw that were stagnant, allowing the resin to degrade.When the challenger resin is fed to the extruder, slight dif-ferences in the processability of the resin relative to theincumbent resin will cause these degraded resin fragmentsto separate from the screw and contaminate the challengerextrudate. In many cases, the challenger resin receives theblame for the gels rather than the incumbent resin and poorscrew design.

The Incumbent EffectThe incumbent effect starts off by running a single-screwextruder for extended periods of time with the same resin(incumbent). Here the extrudate and film appear acceptablewith only a few gels and black specks in the film product.These gels and black specs are generated in stagnant regionsof the screw. The majority of the gels, however, are attachedto the screw and are stable; i.e., not separating from thescrew at a rate high enough to alarm quality specialists inthe plant.

28-31 Consultants Corner_046854 IndustryNews.QXD 4/19/16 12:09 PM Page 28

Next, as a short trial or prototype run, the incumbent resinis switched with a challenger resin. Even though the chal-lenger resin may be similar, it will likely process slightlydifferent than the incumbent resin. This slight difference inprocessing is often enough to cause the old degraded mate-rial that is adhering to the screw to separate from the screwand contaminate the extrudate.

The old degradation will start to come out of the die typ-ically in about five minutes after the switch for blown filmlines. The initial discharge of gels is sometimes viewed as agel shower, and then a high level of gels will continue to beobserved for the short duration of the trial run. In manycases, plant personnel will unknowingly blame the high levelof gels on the last change—in this case, the switch to thechallenger resin. That is, the challenger resin is incorrectlyblamed for the high level of gels. In severe cases, the trial isstopped and the challenger resin is eliminated as an accept-able resin for the application. The incumbent resin continuesas the preferred resin. The root cause for the gels, however,is a poorly designed extruder screw and not the challengerresin. This is the incumbent resin effect.

Screw Design FlawsA necessary condition for the incumbent effect is minordesign flaws in the screw. These flaws are regions wheresmall amounts of resin stagnate, degrade, and then separatefrom the screw, causing defects in the film product. The levelof gels is manageable at steady-state conditions for theincumbent resin. However, the slight upsets that occur byintroducing a challenger resin can cause the degraded mate-rial to separate from the screw at a faster rate. If thechallenger resin was processed for an extended period oftime, likely the same level of gels would eventually occur.Typically, the challenger resin is extruded for only short trials,and is incorrectly blamed for the higher level of gels.

The vast majority of screws operating in North Americaare single flighted designs with a barrier melting section anda downstream Maddock-style mixer. The most commonflaws include flight radii in the metering channels that aretoo small, and improperly designed flutes on Maddock mix-

ers.4 If the design of the screw is proper, the incumbent resineffect will not occur.

The most common defect on screws built for PE resins isthe size of the flight radii. Most screw manufacturers designscrews with flight radii that are about half of the depth ofthe local channel. In many cases the size of the flight radiiare even smaller. Figure 1b) shows the flight radius (left sideradius) for an improperly designed screw for PE resins. Chan-nels with small radii can cause regions where the residencetime is extremely long, leading to resin degradation.

A photograph of resin degradation due to small flight radiiis shown in Figure 1a). The degradation at small flight radiiare caused by long residence times due to the formation ofsecondary re-circulation flows known as Moffat eddies.5Flight radii that are large, such as the radius shown on theright radius in Figure 1b), will not allow Moffat eddies to form,eliminating degradation at this location.

As a general design rule, barrier flighted melting sectionsare best for screws with barrel diameters greater than 70mm. If a barrier section is designed into smaller diameterscrews, the advantages of higher melting rates are sometimesnot obtained, and there is a high risk of the barrier sectionnot functioning properly. For these small-diameter screws,the entry to the barrier section can become restrictive, limitingthe specific rate of the extruder and causing resin degradationand gels.2,6 Although small-diameter screws can be designedsuccessfully with barrier melting sections, the low-risk design

Figure 1: a) Photograph of degraded resin due to small flight radii, and b) schematic of flight radii: the small flight radius (R1) wouldlikely cause a Moffat eddy, and the large flight radius (R2) relative to the channel depth (H) would likely not form a Moffat eddy.

In many cases, thechallenger resin

receives the blame for thegels rather than theincumbent resin and poorscrew design.

28-31 Consultants Corner_046854 IndustryNews.QXD 4/19/16 6:14 AM Page 29

would use just a simple single-flighted transition section.Maddock-style mixers7-9 are designed into most screws

for PE extrusion processes. Their widespread use is due totheir low cost to build, simplicity of the design, and theirability to trap, melt, and disperse solid polymer fragmentsfrom incomplete melting. They work by dividing the flowinto two to eight different inflow flutes (depending on thediameter of the screw), passing the flow across a dispersivemixing flight, collecting the flow in the outflow flutes, andthen recombining the flow for the downstream sections ofthe screw. Many innovations have occurred to the mixersince it was first described. One of the innovations was toincrease the depth of the flute channels to mitigate pressureconsumption and energy dissipation. If the flutes are madetoo deep, however, resin can become stagnte at the rootand lead to resin degradation and gels.Photographs of two spiral Maddock mixer designs are

shown in Figure 2. The mixer in Figure 2a) is poorly designedwith the depth of the flutes being too large, creating flutes

that will cause resin to stagnate and degrade. Degradedresin is observed in this mixer as black hard material. Themixer in Figure 2b) is much better, with the depth of the fluteset at half the width of the flute.

DiscussionThe incumbent resin effect, where degraded resin appearsin the film product almost immediately after switching to achallenger resin, is created by two problems: 1) defects inthe screw design that allow resin to stagnate and degrade,and 2) concluding that the challenger resin is the source ofthe degradation, even though not enough time has elapsedto create degradation gels from the challenger resin.There are two technical solutions to mitigate the incumbent

effect for PE resins. The first and long-term solution is todesign a new screw that does not contain regions where theresin flow will stagnate. This means that all channels mustbe filled and pressurized, flight radii must be large enough

in the liquid-filled sections of the screwto eliminate Moffat eddies, and mixersmust be streamlined such that stagnantregions do not exist. Designing andbuilding a new screw will take six weeksor more for delivery. The new and prop-erly designed screw will allow a nearlygel-free product.The second and short-term technical

solution is to remove and clean the exist-ing screw before the challenger resin isintroduced to the extruder. For this solu-tion, the extruder may operate withoutproducing degradation products for sev-eral hours. After this induction period,the degradation products that areformed may be stable and attached tothe screw, causing only a low and man-ageable level of gels. This gel level wouldbe essentially equivalent to the level pro-duced by the incumbent resin.Screws with the defects described in

this paper will typically require very longtimes to have an acceptable purging.That is, the degraded materials at theflight radii or deep in the flutes of a Mad-dock mixer are difficult to remove usingpurge materials. Moreover, once themajority of the degradation is removed,

Incumbent Resin Effect for Single-Screw Extrusion _________________

Figure 2: Photographs of spiral Maddock mixers: a) mixer with very deep flutes andevidence of resin degradation, and b) a properly designed mixer where the depth ofthe flute is set at half of the width of the flute.

the stagnant region is now filled with a combination of thepurge material and the old degraded resin.If purge times seem excessive, it is recommended that the

screw be removed and studied for degradation. For this pro-cedure, the pellet flow to the hopper is stopped while screwrotation is continued. The screw is rotated until resin flowout of the die stops. Next, screw rotation is stopped and thetransfer line is removed from the discharge end of the extrud-er. The hot screw should be pushed out about threediameters and then photographed and studied for indicationsof degradation. The metal surfaces should appear clean withonly mild discoloration. If a stagnant region exits, then darkcolored, degraded material will occupy the space. Once thesegment is studied, the hot resin should be removed fromthe screw using brass tools. Another three diameters arethen pushed out and the process is repeated.Poorly designed sections downstream from the screw can

also cause resin to stagnate. These sections include poorlydesigned transfer lines, screen packs, and dies.

SummaryThe incumbent resin effect is described where a poorlydesigned screw for a single-screw extruder is operating stably

with a manageable level of degradation gels in the PE filmproduct. The degradation gels are formed in stagnant regionsof the screw, but tend to stay adhered to the screw. Whenthe extruder is switched to a challenger resin, slight processchanges cause the degraded resin from the incumbent resinto separate from the screw, contaminating the film product.In many cases, the challenger resin is identified as the rootcause of the problem rather than the poorly designed screw.

References1. T.I. Butler, “Gel Troubleshooting,” in Film Extrusion Manual, Chap-

ter 19, Edited by T.I. Butler, TAPPI Press, Atlanta, Georgia, 2005.2. G.A. Campbell and M.A. Spalding, Analyzing and Troubleshooting

Single-Screw Extruders, Hanser Publications, Munich, 2013.3. M.A. Spalding, E. Garcia-Meitin, S.L. Kodjie, and G.A. Campbell,

SPE ANTEC Tech. Papers, 59, 1205 (2013).4. M.A. Spalding, Plast. Eng., 71 (9), 32 (2015).5. H.K. Moffat, J. Fluid Mech. 18, 1 (1964).6. K.S. Hyun, M.A. Spalding, and J. Powers, SPE ANTEC Tech. Papers,

41, 293 (1995).7. G. LeRoy, US Patent 3,486,192 (1969).8. R.B. Gregory, U.S. Patent 3,788,614 (1974).9. P. Andersen, C-K Shih, M.A. Spalding, M.D. Wetzel, and T.W.

Womer, SPE ANTEC Tech. Papers, 55, 668 (2009).

Optimizing Precision & Productivity inExtruding 3-D Printing Filament

By Dave CzarnikConair, Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania, USA

3-D printing is taking off as an attractive tech-nology for engineering, prototyping, andother commercial uses, and demand for

the plastic rod or filament that feeds the printers has neverbeen greater. Yet, the extrusion lines producing filamenttoday tend not to be as efficient as they could be, and thereis room for quality improvement as well. Taking advantageof experience in the production of high-precision profiles andtubing, including heart and brain catheters, Conair extrusionexperts assembled a demonstration line to show how usingthe latest equipment and a complete systems approachcan result in significant improvement over the current stateof the art.

As 3-D printing technology advances and as high-endprinting equipment becomes more sophisticated, tight fila-ment tolerances are becoming ever more critical. If thediameter is oversized, or the ovality (roundness) varies, fil-ament can misfeed or even jam in the feeder. If it isundersized, the feeder rolls may slip, and the flow of polymerto the printer nozzle may be inconsistent.Most printers are calibrated volumetrically; that is, the

amount of material delivered through the nozzle is assumed

Conair extrusion experts recently assembled a demonstration line to show how using the latest equipment and a completesystems approach can result in significant improvement over the current state of the art.

TECHNICAL PAPER

32-35 Czarnik_046854 IndustryNews.QXD 4/19/16 6:13 AM Page 32

to be a function of the filament diameter, along with thespeed at which it is being fed. An inch of filament of a givendiameter is assumed to deliver a specific volume of polymer.If the diameter varies even slightly, the volume of resindeposited on the part will also vary, causing voids and oth-er defects. The best producers in the 3-D-filament industry today are

supplying product with tolerances within ±0.002 inch (0.058mm) on diameter and also on ovality, although much of theproduct on the market is more like ±0.003 inch (0.075 mm).

Demonstrating Fast ThroughputsA demonstration filament line, which was run off at theConair Extrusion Development & Testing Lab in Pinconning,Michigan, has achieved throughput rates of 400 to 600ft/min. (122 to 183 m/min.), which is three or four timesgreater than the typical production rate in the industry.Even at these high extrusion rates, quality is also much bet-ter than industry norms. Conair has recorded just ±0.0005inch (0.0127 mm) variation on diameter and less than 0.001inch (0.0254 mm) on ovality.The extrusion line starts with drying of the ABS resin in a

Conair mobile drying and conveying system (model MDCW100), which also loads the resin to the extruder hopper. A 2-inch (51-mm) Davis-Standard Super Blue extruder was usedwith a Conair GRH-1.0 extrusion die designed specifically forfilament/rod production.

Sizing & Cooling the FilamentAfter emerging from the die, the filament passes into aConair pre-skinner that begins the critical sizing and coolingprocess. From the pre-skinner, the rapidly moving extrusion

enters a Conair HTMP-series multi-pass cooling and sizingtank. The filament makes three passes through the tankbefore exiting to a precision belt puller and a Conair servo-driven automatic cut-and-transfer coiler. A laser gaugesupplied by Zumbach Electronic, positioned between thecooling tank and the puller, continuously monitors diameterand ovality and provides a feedback loop to the extrusion linecontrol to maintain a consistent product. The HTMP tank is a key component when it comes to

both quality and productivity. Unlike a standard open waterbath, which is still used in many filament installations, theConair tank combines vacuum sizing and precision cooling

In 3-D printing filament extrusion, the latest equipment anda systems approach can result in significant improvement inproductivity and quality.

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in a very space-efficient configuration. Cooling temperaturein the initial sizing section is controlled separately from therest of the tank by a Conair temperature control unit. Usingwarmer water in the vacuum section can help to preventvoids that may form in the center of the filament if the plas-tic cools too quickly. Vacuum sizing is usually reserved for theproduction of hollow shapes, but Conair has found that thetechnique can also be used with solid filament to ensure thehighest possible level of filament uniformity.After exiting the vacuum section of the HTMP tank, the fil-

ament enters the primary cooling water bath, where watertemperature is precisely controlled by a Conair chiller. Whenthe filament reaches the end of the tank, however, it does notexit as it would in a conventional tank. Instead, it loopsaround an oversized servo-driven capstan and is directedback toward the extruder again before looping aroundanother capstan and making a third pass through the cool-ing zone. Taking up only about a third of the floor space that would

be required by a standard open cooling tank, the Conair mul-ti-pass tank still has plenty of cooling capacity so the filamentcan move at the speeds required to achieve high through-puts. Tight control over water temperature and pullingspeed (the large driven capstan actually functions as the pri-mary puller for enhanced precision), together withcontinuous laser gauging, ensures high-quality filament isproduced even at up to 600 ft/min. (183 m/min.).An air-wipe removes moisture, and a three-axis laser gage

measures and confirms ovality and diameter. A relatively longbelt puller is used to draw the filament out of the tank, pro-viding a strong but delicate grip over a long length of thefilament. Finally, a self-regulating loop control feeds an auto-matic cut-and-transfer coil winder that smoothly wraps thefilament onto production-sized reels, ready for transfer tosmaller spools in a separate operation. The Conair Extrusion Development & Testing Lab is avail-

able to filament producers who conduct pre-productionrunoffs on new equipment or develop customized solu-tions that meet and even exceed the industry’s higheststandards for quality and productivity.

About the author… Dave Czarnik, Engineering Manager, Down-stream Extrusion, manages the Conair Extrusion Development& Testing Lab in Pinconning, Michigan. The Lab was created tohelp Conair and its customers “push the boundaries of extrusionproductivity and profitability.” Czarnik is a tooling expert with 25+years of plastics experience and 22 years working in down-stream extrusion for Conair. He holds five extrusion-relatedpatents.

Note: The original version of this article was published as aTechnology Bulletin at www.conairgroup.com in 2015 as “Opti-mizing Precision and Productivity in Extrusion of 3D PrintingFilament.”

Precision & Productivity in Extruding 3-D Printing Filament______

A Conair automaticcut-and-transfer coil-er smoothly wraps fil-ament onto produc-tion-size reels (inset),ready for transfer tosmaller spools in aseparate operation.

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Improving PLA-Based Material for 3-D PrintersUsing Fused Deposition Modeling

By Saied H. KochesfahaniImerys Filtration and Performance Additives, San Jose, California, USA

Note: This is an abridged version of the author’s ANTEC® Indi-anapolis 2016 paper; the paper was scheduled to be presentedat ANTEC at 3:30 on Monday, May 23, in the Polymer Modifiersand Additives sessions. The complete paper includes multipleadditional results about print quality, heat/temperature resist-ance, annealing, and the effect of minerals on flow rate. AfterANTEC, call SPE customer service at +1 203-775-0471 to see thecomplete paper.

Solid objects having complex shapes may be manu-factured by additive manufacturing methods that arealso sometimes referred to as 3-D printing. The

method is used to manufacture objects by placing succes-sive layers of material on themselves to form the final printedobject. Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) is a type of addi-

tive manufacturing in which molten thermoplastics materi-als are laid down on each other as a thin strand using aprint-head that is controlled by computer aided design (CAD)software. The material will then solidify on the print surfaceand form the printed object.While traditionally acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS)

resin has been used in FDM printers for industrial applica-tions, personal desktop printers started with ABS butgradually shifted to PLA (polylactic acid) due to its green rep-utation, bio-compostability, and pleasant smell, as well asits low shrinkage and good printability. However, PLA-basedmaterials used in FDM printers are far from perfect. Manyprint defects such as curvature (especially at the corners)and warpage of printed parts are commonly observed, whichbecome more visible as the size of printed parts increases.Printing fine details can also be challenging due to melt run-off affected by temperature and viscosity of the melt.PLA-based materials also suffer from weak temperature

resistance, which may result in the deformation of printedobjects under elevated temperatures experienced duringstorage and shipping or even during usage, e.g., when theobjects are placed under direct sun exposure behind a carwindshield screen.It is also not uncommon to see incomplete print jobs when

FDM printers stop extruding the plastic melt. This wouldrequire restarting the entire print job without a guaranteethat the next print would be complete. Although equipmentdesign is the primary cause of this problem, consistency andreliability of printing material could also be quite importantin eliminating the problem. Overall, improving printabilityand properties of materials used in FDM 3-D printers couldsignificantly help in transforming these printers into a com-mon household item such as ink-jet printers.The objective of this study was to evaluate the applica-

bility and effects of minerals on PLA-based material (alsocalled the filament) used in FDM 3-D printing, and to devel-op an optimized PLA-based material solution primarily for

TECHNICAL PAPER

Figure 1: MakerGear M2 3-D printer using an in-house, min-eral-filled filament spool, finishing printing the AngledBeams shape (see Figure 2) on unheated blue painter’s tape.

36-43 Kochesefani TECH PAPER 2col_046854 IndustryNews.QXD 4/19/16 6:12 AM Page 36

personal desktop printers. However, such a material wouldalso be suitable for industrial FDM printers, such as thoseoffered by Stratasys and 3D Systems, or for the newer ArburgFreeformer.

Experimental MethodInitial experimental work was conducted using a few dif-ferent models of desktop printers to understand theircapabilities, limitations, and problems. However, the pri-mary FDM printer used in this study was a model M2MakerGear printer (Figure 1) because it provided quite someflexibility in working with a full range of extrusion and printsurface temperatures, allowed the printing of relatively largeobjects, and provided easy access to printer componentsfor maintenance and troubleshooting.It was equipped with a 25-cm x 20-cm heated glass print

surface, whose temperature could be controlled betweenroom temperature (unheated) and over 150°C. Filamentextrusion temperature could also be controlled in a broadrange, including the recommended temperature for PLA,180-220°C.Another focus of the initial experimental work was on in-

house filament production to allow modifying the materialused on the printers. Factors such as extruder temperatureprofile, melt temperature and pressure, type of die, die holediameter, strand/filament cooling and extension/winding,measuring and adjusting filament diameter, and the effectof melt viscosity were studied in this phase. Subsequent

printing of filament produced in-house revealed that theaccuracy and consistency of filament diameter are importantfactors that affect printability and print quality.After printer selection and filament production, the focus

was shifted to understanding factors affecting printabilityand print quality using either standard (commercial) PLA fil-aments or in-house filaments made with unfilled and filledresins. Table 1 provides a summary of parameters investi-gated and materials used in the initial phase of this study.Although the project was focused on PLA material, limitedprinting activities were conducted with polypropylene andABS for comparison and to gain insight on factors affectingprintability.Since no standard procedure existed for evaluating and

comparing 3-D-printed material and processes, a focus andoutcome of the initial phase of this study was on selectingseveral basic shapes which could be used as internal stan-dards for studying and comparing FDM 3-D-printed materials.

Method developmentIn order to compare the printability, printing properties, andquality of printed objects, the following four shapes (Figure 2)were selected as internal standards for comparing print mate-rials/filaments for FDM 3-D printers:1) The Test Tower is a small cube with a rectangular base

measured at 30 mm x 20 mm and a height of 2.5 mm.It’s called a tower since its height could be significantlyhigher, but is limited to 2.5 mm to save printing time. Anyadditional height would have no effect on printability

Figure 2: Shapes selected as internal standards for evaluating 3-D printing: 1) Test Tower, 2) Flat Bar, 3) Text Box, and 4) AngledBeams.

or print quality of the material. This is a basic shape thatis quite easy to print, so it’s used as an initial screen todetermine if a material could be used for FDM printing.

2) Flat Bar is a thin bar with the base dimensions of 190mm x 20 mm and thickness of 1.7 mm. It’s a challeng-ing shape to print by FDM due to its one-dimensionelongation, which enhances the tendency for warpageand detachment from the print surface. It could be usedto indicate the tendency of material for one-dimensionalwarpage and detachment from the print surface.

3) Test Box is a relatively large box with the base dimen-sions of 100 mm x 80 mm, base thickness of 2 mm, andwall height of 6 mm. It also is a challenging shape toprint since it has a high tendency to warp and detach atthe corners. It could be used as a standard to evaluatethe warpage and detachment tendency of the materi-als, including curling and bending of the corners.

4) Angled Beams is a challenging but small shape to print.It’s used as an internal standard for evaluating the tem-perature resistance of PLA materials, so it’s essentialthat the prints are free from defects. This shape couldalso be used for visual evaluation and ranking of printquality and accuracy as related to controlling unwant-ed material drip from print nozzle, because the nozzlemoves frequently from one beam to another duringprinting. The shape is composed of a set of ten beams(square prisms 4 x 4 x 30 mm) attached at the bottomto a support at different angles. The entire shape sitson a thin 5-cm x 5-cm square base. The beams arearranged in order from 10- to 70-degree angles from avertical position, with the 70-degree beam being closestto horizontal position (experiencing the highest load)and the 10-degree beam closest to vertical position(under the lowest load).

Heat/temperature resistance testPLA is a semi-crystalline thermoplastic that is known to haverelatively large amorphous phase and low glass transitiontemperature (Tg) of about 55-65°C. The heat deflection tem-perature (HDT) of most PLA resins is about the Tg ofamorphous PLA. Improving the HDT of PLA requires achiev-ing maximum crystalline content of 33-37%,2 which is neitherachievable nor desirable (due to negative impacts on shrink-age and warpage) in FDM 3-D-printing processes. Followingcrystallization, further improvement in HDT can be achievedwith mineral reinforcement.2-4

Materials studiedA large number of minerals were evaluated in this study pri-marily for use with PLA filaments. Limited tests were alsoconducted with ABS and PP for comparison and to under-stand principles. Most minerals were tested at two loadinglevels of 10% and 20% using standard shapes presented inFigure 2. In addition, a proprietary PLA-based formulationwas developed during this study (called “Formulation-1”),whose performance is compared with unfilled PLA as wellas with 10% or 20% mineral-filled PLA in the experimentalresults presented.Below is a list of minerals used in this study. Materials

that satisfactorily completed printing of standard Shapes 1,2, and 3 were used for printing Angled Beams (Shape 4) tostudy their heat/temperature resistance:• four different talc grades (different particle size, mor-

phology/ore source);• two ground calcium carbonates (different particle size);• two different micas (phlogopite and muscovite);• two calcined kaolins (different particle size);• two diatomaceous earths (natural and calcined);• two perlites (expanded and unexpanded); and• rutile TiO2.

Improving PLA-Based Material for 3D-Printers _____________________

Table 1: FDM Printing Parameters and Materials Studied

Results andDiscussion

Although 3-D printers basedon FDM technology have beenaround for quite a long time,their applications have beenlimited, and technical infor-mation and standards definingthe technology are scarce inopen literature. Therefore,some principles of additivemanufacturing using FDMtechnology are briefly dis-cussed in this section andsupported by the experimen-tal data from this study.

Printability: Detachmentfrom print surfaceThe primary challenge forcompletion of a print job is the ability of the extruded plas-tic strand to stay attached to the print surface (bed) duringthe entire printing process, which could last from a few min-utes to many hours. In fact, this very factor is the main reason

the thermoplastic resin selection for FDM 3-D printing hasbeen limited primarily to ABS, PLA, and a few other resins.Industrial printers have been utilizing many different solu-tions to address the detachment problem, e.g., using a heated

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Table 2: Printability Data for Different Minerals and Loadings on Different Stages at ExtrusionTemperatures of 180° and 220°C

print stage, heated print chamber, special anchors, or tex-tures on the print stage, etc. For desktop printers used inhouseholds or small businesses, however, material selec-tion/modification to enable better attachment to the printsurface and the completion of print job is a more suitableoption.Most desktop FDM printers use a print stage that’s made

of glass. Some may be able to utilize a heated print surface,but the simpler models use an unheated print stage. So aninitial objective of the project was to compare the printabilityof different materials on the glass print stage, and to deter-mine if the printability of PLA on glass could be improved.A few initial attempts of making polypropylene filaments

and using them for FDM printing showed that problems withmaking filaments and extruding them with FDM printerscould be rather easily addressed. But extruded PP strandswould easily and quickly detach from the print stage evenfor a small print such as the Test Tower (Figure 2). Experi-menting with commercial ABS and PLA filaments showedmuch lower detachment tendency, but even these materi-als had difficulty with attachment to unheated glass.ABS required elevated print surface temperatures of about

100-110°C to stay attached and complete printing Shapes1, 2, and 3 shown in Figure 2. Attempts to print with ABS onunheated glass or other surfaces were not successful. Some

printer manufacturers also provide perforated surfaces tohelp with anchoring the print object on the print surface,but even these surfaces did not allow printing with ABS with-out heating the print surface. The best solution was to firstprint a weak “raft” base on the heated glass, then print thedesired shape on the ABS “raft” that could be later brokenoff from the desired shape.PLA shows lower tendency to detach from the print stage,

but even PLA could not be printed sustainably on an unheat-ed glass stage. Our tests show that the best attachment ofPLA is obtained when the print surface temperature isincreased to 70-80°C (slightly higher than the glass transitiontemperature or softening point of PLA). Alternatively, otheroptions for printing on unheated surfaces are: 1) to coverthe glass surface with blue painter’s tape, and 2) to apply aglue (such as typical glue sticks) on the glass surface. Increas-ing PLA extrusion temperature also helps with attachmentto print surface.As shown in Table 2, PLA can be printed on unheated blue

painter’s tape at elevated extrusion temperatures (110-120°C). However, such temperatures were often too highto print smoothly, causing sudden vapor release (“poofing”)or even yellowing/burning marks, especially on humid days.Table 2 shows the results of our FDM printing studies afterthe addition of 10% or 20% of a wide selection of minerals

to PLA at two boundary tem-peratures of 180° and 220°C.The addition of most mineralshelps with attachment of PLAfilaments to the print surface,especially on blue painter’stape.In this table, materials that

are shown to be printable at220° but not at 180°C have anoptimum print temperaturethat falls in between thesetemperatures. Our experienceshows that it’s best to main-tain the printing temperatureof PLA below 210°C, which iseasily achievable with the addi-tion of quite a number ofminerals tested. Some of theminerals tested increasedinstability and degradation ofPLA despite improving print-ability, so they were not found

Table 3: Mold Shrinkage (Solidification Shrinkage) and CLTE of Some Common Semi-Crystallineand Amorphous Plastics

suitable for the application. Formulation-1 represents a pro-prietary mineral-filled PLA-based formulation that showsthe best print quality while allowing a smooth and sustain-able print at temperatures below 200°C.

Shrinkage and contractionDuring FDM printing, thermoplastic polymers (or filled com-pounds) are laid down as a molten strand or extrudate onthe print surface. If the print surface is cooler than the melt-ing or softening temperature of the plastics, the strandswould solidify on the surface. The solidification of plastics typ-ically results in a reduction in theirvolume (shrinkage) followed by furtherthermal contraction as temperaturedecreases below their solidificationtemperature. The net effect of thesephenomena is a decrease in size of theprinted shape compared to the origi-nal dimension that was laid down onthe print surface. This could result inwarpage, distortion, or curling of theedges or base of the printed shape,and in severe cases, partial or com-plete detachment from the printsurface.

In FDM 3-D printing, solidificationshrinkage is the main factor con-tributing to the detachment of printedshapes from print surfaces because ithappens quite rapidly. In comparison,the effect of thermal contraction isweaker and happens gradually as theplastic temperature decreases aftersolidification. However, severe ther-mal contraction may also causeenough dimensional changes andwarpage to detach the print job laterin the FDM printing process. Thermalcontraction or expansion is measuredas the coefficient of linear thermalexpansion (CLTE). Other factors suchas interaction with the print surfacecould also be important.

Amorphous plastics (such as ABS)typically undergo significantly lowershrinkage upon solidification thansemi-crystalline plastics (such as PP)due to their unstructured amorphousorientation in solid state. In compari-son, semi-crystalline plasticsexperience more severe shrinkage asthey form highly structured crystallinedomains during solidification. In addi-tion, the solidification shrinkage

happens at a much slower rate in amorphous polymerssince they do not have a melting or solidification point. Thesolidification of these resins starts around their full meltingtemperature and grows as the temperature decreases untilfull solidification that happens at the glass transition tem-perature. As a result, amorphous polymers show muchsmaller shrinkage upon solidification and expansion/con-traction due to temperature change (shown by CLTE). Table3 compares shrinkage and coefficient of linear thermal expan-sion (CLTE) of some common semi-crystalline and amorphouspolymers.

Although PLA is considered a semi-crystalline resin, it hasquite a wide melting range from the softening temperatureof its amorphous phase (Tg) at about 60°C to around themelting temperature of crystalline PLA (Tc) at about 150-180°C. It also has quite a slow crystallization rate, very lowshrinkage, and moderate to low CLTE, which make it quitean ideal material for FDM 3-D printing.One may note that most amorphous resins shown in Table

3 have been used or could be used for FDM 3-D printing.However, a comparison of CLTE of the amorphous polymerswith that of minerals shows about an order of magnitude low-er CLTE for minerals.1More importantly, the minerals remainsolid in the melt processing of plastics, e.g., during FDMprinting, and do not experience any shrinkage. Therefore, theaddition of minerals to 3-D printing filaments, including PLA-based filaments, reduces their shrinkage and CLTE andtherefore contributes to improving printability and attach-ment to print surfaces and reducing warpage, curling, andsimilar printing defects.

Print quality: WarpageSolidification shrinkage and thermal contraction upon cool-ing could result in curling at the edges and warpage of thebase of printed shapes. Print objects with larger base dimen-

sions normally have higher tendencies to warp, which iswhy we used Flat Bar and Test Box shapes (Shapes 2 and 3in Figure 2) as two internal standards for studying thewarpage and detachment of objects printed using FDMprinters. To quantify warpage for these printed shapes, thefollowing definitions/measurements were used.

Flat Bar warpage (in mm) is the height of one end of aprinted bar from a horizontal surface, when the bar is laidflat on the horizontal surface and its other end is pressed andheld parallel onto the horizontal surface. The measurementis repeated for both ends of the bar and the maximum read-ing is used as warpage indicator.

Figures 3 and 4 show the warpage measured for the FlatBar. Commercial neat PLA filament did not complete print-ing of this shape at 180°C, but it did, with rather largewarpage, at 220°C extrusion temperature. The majority ofmineral-filled PLA filaments did complete printing at bothtemperatures and showed lower warpage than neat PLA.The large variations (standard deviation) seen in these resultsare mostly related to limitations of the desktop printer(s)used, inconsistency of material diameter (in-house filaments),and instability of PLA during printing (including some dueto the presence of certain minerals). The best printabilityand lowest warpage in this case belongs to Formulation-1.

Figure 3: Effect of minerals on warpage of Flat Bar shapes at180°C extrusion temperature.

Figure 4: Effect of minerals on warpage of Flat Bar shapes at220°C extrusion temperature.

Conclusions

A method has been developed to evaluate thermoplasticsmaterials for use in FDM 3-D printers. It provides the meansto evaluate the attachment of extruded materials to theprint stage (completing the print job); to compare warpage,curling, and deformation of printed objects; to compare theoverall consistency and quality of the printed objects; andto evaluate the temperature/heat resistance of PLA-basedmaterial, which may soften and deform during applicationor storage/transportation. The method was used to inves-tigate benefits of mineral-filled PLA by comparing it withtypical PLA filaments used for desktop FDM 3-D-printing.The results show that the addition of some minerals to

PLA does improve the attachment of print material to theprint stage, and allows printing at lower extrusion temper-atures and on unheated print stages, including on glass andon blue painter’s tape. The addition of minerals could alsoreduce shrinkage and improve the quality of print jobs byreducing warpage and curling of the edges. It’s also observedthat the addition of some minerals, such as talc, couldimprove the temperature resistance of PLA.

AcknowledgementsThe author would like to acknowledge the contributions ofDr. Irina Pozdnyakova and Dr. Deeba Ansari, who helpedwith the direction of the project, and Ms. Madeline Hard-castle, Mr. David Vaccaro, Mr. Rodney Martinez, Mr. DustinLettenburger, and Mr. Yi Lei, who conducted the experi-ments, prepared filaments for use in the printers, andoperated, fixed, and maintained the FDM 3-D printers.

References1. McKinstry, H.A., “Thermal expansion of clay minerals”, The Amer-

ican Mineralogist, Vol. 50, January/February, 1965.2. Kochesfahani, S.K., Abler, C., Crepin-Leblond, J., and Jouffret,

F., “Enhancing Biopolymers with High Performance Talc Prod-ucts”, Proceedings of 2010 SPE ANTEC Conference, pp. 120-126.

3. Sawyer, D., “Developing Higher Value Bioplastic Applications”,Innovation Takes Root Forum, Dallas, Texas, USA, April 13-15,2010.

4. Kochesfahani, S.K., Abler, C., Crepin-Leblond, J., and Jouffret,F., “Maximizing Talc Benefits in Durable PLA Applications withLuzenac HAR®,” Proceedings of 2012 SPE ANTEC Conference, pp.182-186.

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This article continues the series of updates in Plastics Engi-neering from Plastics Make it Possible®, an initiative sponsoredby America’s Plastics Makers® through the ACC.

arecent acc article in this publication highlighted thegrowth of plastics recycling in the Usa (February 2016,p. 48), noting that it has been growing steadily, broad-

ly, and expansively:• the recycling rate for plastic bottles reached nearly 32%

in 2014, topping 3 billion pounds (1.4 billion kg) for theyear.

• nearly 1.3 billion pounds (600,000 kg) of rigid plastics(e.g., wide-mouth containers, caps, lids, toys, buckets, andcrates) were collected for recycling in 2014, equal tofour times the amount collected in just 2007, whenmeasuring began.

• and nearly 1.2 billion pounds (540,000 kg) of plasticwraps and bags were collected for recycling in 2014, anincrease of 79% since 2005, when measuring began.

these numbers represent a lot of hard work by munici-palities, recyclers, consumers, consumer productcompanies—and america’s plastics makers.

since the early 1980s, U.s. companies that make plasticshave invested billions of dollars to help establish the plas-tics recycling infrastructure. resin-makers’ combined effortsrange from supporting innovations in collection and pro-cessing, to tracking progress to encourage americans torecycle more plastics. Here’s a look at a few of these efforts…

Strengthening Curbside Collectionthe growth in curbside recycling over the past few decadeshas driven much of the growth in recycling plastics (and oth-ers materials). since 2012, the acc has supported therecycling Partnership, a non-profit organization dedicatedto helping communities improve their residential curbsideprograms by encouraging citizens to recycle.

the Partnership’s approach is simple: make recycling eas-

ier. this group works with various stakeholders in recycling(government, private industry, haulers, materials recoveryfacilities, and more) to identify ways to improve curbsiderecycling programs through data analysis and education.

the Partnership dramatically improved recycling in morethan 70 U.s. communities in 2015 alone. currently reaching1.2 million households, this organization has supplied morethan 165,000 new, larger recycling carts. Many communi-ties have seen huge advances in recycling rates after moving

44 | Plastics EnginEEring | MaY 2016 | www.4spe.org | www.plasticsengineering.org

Plastics-Makers Help Drive Recycling GrowthCommunication is the key for strengthening recycling effortsnationwide

By American Chemistry Council (ACC)

The Recycling Partnership encourages communities toincrease curbside recycling using large, rolling bins.

44-47 American Chemistry Council_046854 IndustryNews.QXD 4/19/16 12:49 PM Page 44

to single stream recycling, in which all recyclables go intoone large bin. And these rising recycling rates are lifting allmaterials, not just plastics.

Speaking the Same LanguagePlastics recycling can be confusing at times. While the verynature of plastics—lightweightyet strong—makes them suit-able for all sorts of packaging,the many different types of plas-tics can make it trickysometimes to collect and sortthe stuff. And unlike aluminumcans, which are fairly uniformin shape, plastic packaging takesso many shapes and forms thatcommunities often strugglewhen telling residents what torecycle. Do we look at the num-ber on the bottom of apackage? Is a plastic cup thesame as a recyclable container?Should we just throw anythingplastic in the bin and let therecyclers figure it out? (By theway, the answer to that last oneis a definite no.)

To help cut through some of this confusion, plastics-makerscreated a wide-ranging resourcefor recycling professionals: recycleyourplastics.org. This siteprovides ready access to no-cost resources on improvingplastics collection and recycling,including user-friendly tips andtools and best practices, andaccess to experts and peers inthe recycling world.

To further support theseefforts, plastics-makers andrecyclers have created a set ofcommon plastics recyclingterms to help get everybody inthe USA and Canada speakingthe same language when col-lecting, processing, and sellingrecycled plastics. The commonterms (like a glossary or lexicon)are designed to make it easierfor consumers to recycle moreplastics and to help improvenationwide tracking of the types

and amounts of plastics recycled.This resource is offered free of charge to any communi-

ty in the USA and Canada, and includes simple tools to makeimplementation easy. These resources were designed toboost the types and amounts of plastics recycled and to helpmeet growing demand for recycled plastics.

An example ACC poster for consumers.

44-47 American Chemistry Council_046854 IndustryNews.QXD 4/19/16 6:08 AM Page 45

Putting It Right on the Label

The Sustainable Packaging Coalition has introduced a new“How2Recycle” label that a variety of major brand ownersand retailers are using on packaging to provide clear, sim-ple, and nationally harmonized recycling directions. Whilestill fairly new, with support from companies including Costco, General Mills, Microsoft, and Estee Lauder, the newlabel has the potential to dramatically increase recyclingrates.Plastics-makers supported the development of the label

and worked with the Coalition and others to create a storedrop-off version specifically for polyethylene film recycling.This How2Recycle label can help growing efforts to recyclemore plastic bags for bread, groceries, and newspapers;dry-cleaning and product wraps; air pillows; and other recy-clable flexible plastics.For years now, plastics makers have been working with

municipalities, retailers, and businesses nationwide to devel-op a widespread collection program for plastic film atthousands of major retailers across the country, includinggrocery stores, Target, Wal-Mart, Lowe’s, and others. Plastic

wraps and bags now are collected at more than 18,000 store-front locations across the USA, and the plastic film recyclingrate reached 17% in 2014. (One major end use of this filmis composite decking made by Trex.)Plastics-makers also sponsor annual surveys that meas-

ure the amounts of plastics recycled and the percentagesof Americans who have access to various types of recyclingprograms. Efforts to track recycling of plastic bottles beganin 1990, with separate studies for film added in 2005 andrigid plastics added in 2007.

Encouraging Consumers to RecycleMany Americans remember the impact of the iconic litterprevention advertisements featuring an actor playing aNative American (actor Iron Eyes Cody) tearing up at thesight of a polluted landscape. That campaign, sponsoredby Keep America Beautiful (KAB) and the Ad Council, helpedmake it culturally unacceptable to litter the landscape.KAB and the Ad Council recently teamed up again, this time

to motivate Americans to recycle every day. Plastics-makersare helping to sponsor the “I Want to Be Recycled” campaign,which uses TV, radio, online, and outdoor advertising to teacha new generation—and even the older ones—to “give yourgarbage another life. Recycle.” Whether a plastic bottle oraluminum can, the ads proclaim that all recyclables have thepotential to become something important.And many more efforts are underway. As noted above,

most efforts to increase plastics recycling involve broad coali-tions of organizations dedicated to sustainably managingpost-use plastics. Of particular note is the positive impactof the growing number of large brand companies that havecommitted to increasing the use of recycled plastics in theirproducts and packaging, which should drive increased futuredemand. One of the goals of the ACC’s Plastics Make it Possible ini-

tiative (www.plasticsmakeitpossible.com/plastics-recycling/) isto help more people understand the personal and societalbenefits of plastics and specifically how plastics contributeto sustainability. Plastics offer so many environmental ben-efits, from extending food shelf life, to dramatically boostingthe energy efficiency of our homes and vehicles, to reduc-ing greenhouse gas emissions. The ability to recycle plasticsafter use strengthens these benefits. The growing successof plastics recycling—made possible by decades of collabo-rative efforts—has contributed vastly to the plasticssustainability story.

Plastics-Makers Help Drive Recycling Growth______________________

Co-located with AIMCAL Web Coating & Handling Conference

Topics Include:

Sustainability, Recycling, Bio-based Materials, and Biodegradablity

Nanotechnology / Nano and Micro-layering

Barrier Technology, Sealing & Closures, Advances in Tie Layers

Extrusion and Extrusion Coating, New Technology and Problem Solving

Converting, New Packaging Materials, Functional Packaging, New Packaging Processes

Pouch Technology, Smart Packaging, Shift from Rigid to Flexible

Anti-counterfeit, Traceability, Regulatory & Food Safety, Brand Owner Perspectives & Case Studies

View program details at:

CALL FOR TECHNICAL PAPERSProgram Deadlines:

Abstracts: May 27Papers: July 1Presentations: July 29

October 9-12, 2016The Peabody - Memphis, Tennessee

Where Packaging & Innovation Meet

Web Coating & Handling Conference

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The Peabody - Memphis, TennesseeOctober 9-12, 2016

Web Coating & Handling ConferenceCo-located with AIMCAL

novation Meet et

phis, Tennessee eeober 9-12, 2016 16

CALL FOR TECHNICAL PAPERS

July 1Papers: May 27Abstracts:

Program Deadlines:

CALL FOR TECHNICAL PAPERS

July 1May 27

Program Deadlines:

CAL PAPE

and BiodegradablitySustainability, Recycling, Bio-based Materials,

Topics Include:

July 29Presentations:Papers:

and BiodegradablitySustainability, Recycling, Bio-based Materials,

Topics Include:

erials,

July 29July 1

sed Materials,

Packaging, New Packaging ProcessesConverting, New Packaging Materials, Functional

and Problem SolvingExtrusion and Extrusion Coating, New Technology

in Tie LayersBarrier Technology, Sealing & Closures, Advances

Packaging, New Packaging ProcessesConverting, New Packaging Materials, Functional

and Problem SolvingExtrusion and Extrusion Coating, New Technology

in Tie LayersBarrier Technology, Sealing & Closures, Advances

s cesses s, Functional terials, Functional

w Technology g, New

s, Advances Closures, Advances

ering cro-layering

Safety, Brand Owner Perspectives & Case StudiesAnti-counterfeit, Traceability, Regulatory & Food

Rigid to FlexiblePouch Technology, Smart Packaging, Shift from

Packaging, New Packaging Processes

Safety, Brand Owner Perspectives & Case StudiesAnti-counterfeit, Traceability, Regulatory & Food

Rigid to FlexiblePouch Technology, Smart Packaging, Shift from

Packaging, New Packaging Processes

s & Case Studies ves ulatory & Food egu

g, Shift from aging, Shift from

s cesses

View program details at:

ails at: a

Five Regulatory Issues to Watch in 2016

INSIDE SPI

This year is proving to be packed with regulatory activ-ity at the federal level for two big reasons: first, withCongress focused on elections, federal agencies may

face less scrutiny than in any other year, and second, this isPresident Obama’s last opportunity to make lasting policychanges. Stateside, not surprisingly, California will remainactive from a regulatory standpoint this year as wellSPI addresses countless issues stemming from the fed-

eral agencies’ semi-annual agendas, federal courts, and thestates that impact the plastics industry. Here are five.

Foreign Supplier Verification Programs(FSVP)The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued its final FSVPrule in November 2015 under the Food Safety Moderniza-tion Act (FSMA). FSVP governs food that is imported to theUnited States and ensures that those importing food aredoing so in a manner that is as safe as possible for the Amer-ican public.SPI worked with FDA to ensure that the rule would include

an explicit exemption for food-contact substances, but unfor-tunately the final rule did not provide any such exemption.By default, this means the rule encompasses food packag-ing. SPI members could be subject to onerous andunnecessary requirements to conduct food safety hazardassessments and audits of their foreign suppliers if theymanufacture food-contact substances. SPI is currently work-ing with FDA on the issue and hopes to see some clarifyingaction by the agency in 2016.

Improve Tracking of Workplace Injuriesand IllnessesThe pending Improve Tracking of Workplace Injuries and Ill-nesses rule is one of the Occupational Safety and HealthAdministration’s (OSHA) highest priorities. A final rule isunder review at the Office of Management and Budget’sOffice of Information and Regulatory Affairs.

SPI submitted comments on the November 2013 proposal,which would require the electronic transmission (annual orquarterly, depending on the number of employees) of infor-mation that is currently recorded, but not reported, to OSHAor its designee. Significant concerns include maintainingemployee confidentiality, particularly in terms of postinginformation on a public website, as well as employer andagency resource burdens.

Combustible DustOSHA does not have a comprehensive standard to addresscombustible dust, though it is now in the definition of “haz-ardous chemical” in the Hazard Communication Standard(HCS). Combustible dust incidents have resulted in fires andexplosions, and rulemaking activity was first published inthe Unified Agenda in spring 2009. The next step is seek-ing small business input, required under the Small BusinessRegulatory Enforcement Fairness Act (SBREFA), but thereare continuous delays.SPI will monitor OSHA’s progress. SPI is also watching

combustible dust activity under the Globally HarmonizedSystem of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals andcomments on National Fire Protection Association stan-dards 654 and 652. SPI is currently developing commentsfor the revision of NPFA 652, due June 29.

Risk Management Plan RuleThe U.S. EPA began the rulemaking process for revisions tothe Risk Management Plan (RMP) Rule with a Request forInformation (RFI) in 2014. RMP requires facilities that meetthreshold quantity requirements of specific regulated sub-stances to develop plans in case there is an accidentalrelease.After the SBREFA process, EPA released a proposed rule

in February 2016. SPI will file comments. OSHA is now con-vening a SBREFA panel for potential revisions to the ProcessSafety Management of Highly Hazardous Chemicals stan-

48-49 Inside SPI_046854 IndustryNews.QXD 4/19/16 6:07 AM Page 48

dard, for which OSHA issued an RFI in December 2013. SPIwill continue monitoring.

California’s “75% Initiative”—TheManufacturers’ ChallengeIn 2011 California passed legislation that sets a non-manda-tory target of reducing the amount of solid waste sent tolandfills by 75% through reduction, recycling, or compost-ing by 2020. The “75% Initiative,” as it’s referred to, is beingimplemented by CalRecycle, the state agency that handlesrecycling and recovery efforts.The Manufacturers’ Challenge is a program that targets

packaging materials and sets a goal to reduce the amountof packaging sent to landfills by 50% by 2020. SPI has sub-mitted comments and met with CalRecycle, and alsoparticipated in the Manufacturers’ Challenge meeting, whichtook place on January 5, 2016. More updates on the initia-

tive and CalRecycle’s outreach efforts to manufacturers couldoccur in 2016, and SPI will keep the plastics industry informed.

See more about SPI’s policy initiatives at www.plasticsindustry.org/PublicPolicy.

Injection Molding: Base LoadsModern injection molding machines are much more energy-efficient than older hydraulic machines, but there are a lot ofolder machines in use, and these use a lot of energy.

The biggest energy user in an older hydraulic machine is thehydraulic motor itself. One of the main reasons for this is thebase load of these machines. In many machines, the baseload from energy losses in the hydraulics is far higher thanthe actual energy used for the process. In fact, for all but themost recent machines, the base load is an average of 75% ofthe total load. This means that 75% of the energy goes inoperating the machine and only 25% of the energy is used inproducing the part.

It’s essential that you make sure that the machine is not usingenergy when it is not producing parts. This means switchingthe main motor(s) off as soon as the machine stopsproductive work.

Actions:• Check the base load for older hydraulic machines by

monitoring the energy used with the main motor runningbut with the platens not moving—and be prepared for abig surprise.

• For older hydraulic machines, turning off the hydraulicmotor the moment the platens stop moving is one of theeffective things you can do.

• Fit controls to turn off the motor (e.g., the Eaton EasySeries). Do not try to change the people; they will alwaysforget and cost you money.

• Fit controls to turn off the downstream equipment (e.g.,conveyors, granulators, and blowers) as soon as the mainmachine stops producing product

Dr. Robin Kent — ©Tangram Technology Ltd.(www.tangram.co.uk)

Note: Dr. Robin Kent is the author of Energy Management in Plastics Processing, published by Plastics Information Direct, and managing directorof Tangram Technology Ltd., consulting engineers specializing in energy management in plastics processing. rkent@tangram.co.uk.

SPI addressescountless issues

stemming from the federalagencies’ semi-annual agendas,federal courts, and the statesthat impact theplastics industry.

48-49 Inside SPI_046854 IndustryNews.QXD 4/19/16 6:07 AM Page 49

Plastics Pioneers… in Middle School

On March 28, the SPE student chapter at the University ofConnecticut welcomed future potential polymer researchersto a talk/demo about plastics in modern life. In a brief talk,Prof. Luyi Sun, faculty advisor of the SPE UConn studentchapter, took about 70 middle-school students from near-by Tolland, Connecticut, on a quick historical tour of materialsuse—from the Stone Age through the “Bone Age” and BronzeAge, all the way up to our current “Silicon Age,” in which syn-thetic polymers play key roles, with “Plastics everywhere!”The students were already an informed audience. Tolland

teacher Celeste Estevez said they had created cornstarchplastic in a school experiment, researching what had occurred

during that process. So the demonstration by UConn stu-dent chapter president Gregory Treich and officer SoniaChavez was a follow-up; they created for the students abatch of white glue/borax “slime,” which gradually hardenedinto an elastic thermoset material. The demo led to a rela-tively complex discussion by Sun, his team, and the studentsabout the tradeoffs of durability vs. cost vs. sustainability inplastic materials.The students are in the Tolland Middle School Enrichment

program, in which high-achieving students are encouragedto develop projects of their own choosing, said Estevez. Aproject might be related to STEM (science, technology, engi-neering, and math), like developing a school bus trackingapp, for example, or it can concern anything related to astudent’s interests, including music and the performing arts.www.4spe.org/Communities

A. Schulman Inc., a leading international supplier of high-performance plastic compounds, composites, powders, andresins, recently announced that it will open its first Engi-neered Composites Innovation and Collaboration Center,later this summer. The center will be located in Bay City,Michigan. The company’s customers will have the opportu-nity to develop unique solutions to challenging applicationswith a focus on light-weight materials and parts consolida-tion, the company says“Our Innovation and Collaboration Center will initially focus

on our Engineered Thermoset Composites product line,recently acquired through the Citadel Plastics acquisition,”says Frank Roederer, senior vice president and general man-ager, Engineered Composites. “Our future plans for theCollaboration and Innovation Center include expanding ourfocus to include all of A. Schulman’s materials.”The company will have a core innovation team, including

material experts, design and stress engineers, and manu-facturing specialists, who will work directly with their partnercustomers to accelerate the timeframe from concept to pro-duction. It will provide full engineering services to facilitatethis process and apply a material-neutral approach, thusproviding the best solution based on customer needs.“From single components to complete tear-down analyses,

we will facilitate a process to guide the customer from aninitial needs assessment to developed solutions,” says DougGries, director of market development, Engineered Com-posites. “We believe that by having all disciplines participatingupfront in a collaborative environment, conceptual changes

INDUSTRY NEWS

Photos courtesy of Hui Wang, UConn

50-55 Industry News_046854 IndustryNews.QXD 4/19/16 6:04 AM Page 50

to design or materials can immediately be evaluated by theteam for cost and production feasibility.”www.aschulman.com

AGC Chemicals Americas now offers Fluon fluorinated eth-ylene propylene (FEP) foam concentrates for LAN and coaxialcable insulation. When coated with foamed insulation pro-duced from Fluon FEP concentrates, cables reportedlydemonstrate minimal distortion and signal loss, andimproved high-speed data transmission.A gas-injected foam extrusion process is used to produce

foamed cable insulation. Since foamed fluoropolymers arelighter in weight than solid wall constructions, the processuses less FEP and saves material costs.The AGC FluoroCompounds Group offers two grades of

standard FEP foam concentrates. Higher-flow concentratesare ideal for thin-wall applications in LAN cables; lower-flowfoam concentrates are used for thicker coaxial cable wallconstructions. AGC can also customize foam concentratesto meet specific application parameters. Fluon FEP foam concentrates, supplied in cylindrical

pellet form, are added to natural FEP. They contain a well-dispersed nucleating agent that acts as a site for foamingduring the gas-injected foam extrusion process. The foamconcentrates do not contain lead, hexavalent chromium, orcadmium, and are used in applications where RoHS com-pliance is required, the company says.www.fluorocompounds.com

Covestro and Nanodax Co., Ltd. have signed an agreementabout the development of polycarbonate composites rein-forced with glass wool. Tokyo-based Nanodax reportedlyhas developed a special process for the manufacture ofthese products. Conventionally, glass fibers are used for reinforcing ther-

moplastics such as polycarbonate. However, the newtechnology developed by Nanodax has enabled the use ofglass wool as a reinforcing filler. It has a small diameter andis more flexible than glass fibers.Photo courtesy of AGC Chemicals Americas

Coming Soon in PE: "QuestionEverything..."

Starting in the July/August 2016 issue, Plastics Engi-neeringwill be featuring a new regular column called"Question Everything... If injection molding means

a lot to your business." It will be written by a key, long-time plastics industry insider (in the next issue of PE, lookfor the author to be revealed in an extended interviewabout the state of the industry).This series will present and discuss issues specific to

injection molding, with topics including mold design, pro-cessing, part design, and plastic materials. It will questionand challenge the state-of-the-art and try to separaterules-of-thumb and pseudoscience from real science.Learn more about the author of "Question Everything..."

in the June issue of Plastics Engineering.

50-55 Industry News_046854 IndustryNews.QXD 4/19/16 1:02 PM Page 51

INDUSTRY NEWS

Covestro is a leading global supplier of polycarbonatesand has comprehensive expertise in their processing andapplication. Both companies see good prospects for futureuse of the reinforced plastics in automotive, IT, and elec-tronics applications. “Our development cooperation is targeting diverse appli-

cation areas for polycarbonates reinforced with glass wool,and will open up new prospects for both companies,” saysMichael Schmidt, head of business development for Poly-carbonates, Asia Pacific, at Covestro. “In particular, we areaiming at advantages in surface appearance and materialprocessing. Cost reductions for customers are expectedthrough an optimized injection molding manufacturingprocess.”The joint development work will be performed primarily

at Covestro´s Polymer Research & Development Center(PRDC) in Shanghai, China.www.covestro.com

Available since January 2014, the Datacolor 45G CT is a pre-cise, portable spectrophotometer with integrated glossmeasurement. The spectrophotometer enables accuratecolor measurement of painted surfaces, plastic parts, pack-aging labels, automotive parts, furnishings, and othermanufactured goods. Measurements check the visual impres-sion of the color, gloss level, and effect of the surface texture.For automotive interiors, where individual parts are often

manufactured with different surfaces by different suppli-ers, the overall visual effect should still be harmonious. Theportable spectrophotometer enables the quality control ofnumerous components with stringent tolerance values toensure consistent color appearance, reliably detecting minordifferences in gloss or color.For users like automobile manufacturer Audi, for exam-

ple, it’s vital that visual deviations caused by tool wear inplastic injection molded parts are detected before they affectthe production quality, Datacolor explains.Audi sets very high standards for the instruments used

to produce measurements. In this specific case, it needs ahand-held measuring device equipped with analysis soft-ware for evaluating measurement results from weatheringtests and objective measurement data. The device must behighly reliable both in laboratory conditions and field oper-ations.At Audi, automobiles are tested with the spectropho-

tometer before and after weathering. The 45G CT mustevaluate and display differences in comparison with visualimpressions. The device provides objective data for evalu-ation, graphical representations and lists (e.g. changes after5 hours, 10 hours, etc.), and trend graphs. Datacolor saysthe main advantage of the 45G CT over Audi’s previouslyused device is its sleek design, which enables measurementsbe taken in hard-to-reach places in vehicles and on individ-ual components.Meanwhile, managing the measured data with Datacol-

or’s Tools® software helps to structure the wide range ofdata. The onboard software can save standards and samples,and provides a comprehensive display of all important col-orimetric data with clear indications of pass/fail decisions. “With this product, Audi can precisely measure and con-

trol color and gloss in a single convenient operation,” saysStefan Hauck, responsible for interior material developmentand outdoor weathering at Audi. “The design and measur-ing technologies guarantee consistent results even withmeasurements over longer periods.”www.datacolor.com

Nova Chemicals Corp. has announced the commercializa-tion of Surpass® HPs019-F polyethylene, a new resin gradedesigned for the heavy-duty sack (HDS) market. HPs019-Fis a high-performance octene copolymer polyethylene resinfeaturing a balance of toughness and tear, with exception-al creep resistance properties, the company says.Photo courtesy of Datacolor

With a distinct molecular architecture, HPs019-F is madewith Nova Chemicals’ proprietary Advanced Sclairtech™ tech-nology. The company says it enables downgauging anddelivers improved film quality and versatility, compared withtraditional HDS mono-layer and coextruded structures.HPs019-F reportedly is ideal for a wide range of HDS appli-cations, such as salt and resin bags, animal feed and bulkfood packaging, and sealant films for laminate structures.“HPs019-F enables our heavy-duty sack customers to do

more with less,” says Mark Kay, performance films groupmanager, Nova Chemicals Polyethylene Business. “The resin’sversatility and all-around performance allows extruders touse it in coextrusions for a number of different applications.”www.novachemicals.com

Branson Ultrasonics, a business of Emerson, offers long-term production versatility with its new GVX-3 vibrationwelder. The user-configurable design of the GVX-3 comple-ments application-specific upgrades, including Branson’sdual-axis Clean Vibration Technology (CVT) and upgradesinvolving tooling, clamp force, calibration, cycle speeds, andmore, the company reports.“Based on global customer feedback, Branson has

designed the GVX-3 with the ability to maximize configura-bility to best suit our customers’ current and futureapplication needs,” states John Paul Kurpiewski, director,Branson Global Product Management, Non-Ultrasonics.

Photo courtesy of Branson Ultrasonics

12th Thermoplastic Elastomers Topical Conference® 2016Stretching Performance with TPEs

September 20-22 Hilton-Akron/Fairlawn, Akron, OH

The conference this year will feature: Bio-Renewables Additives for Performance Enhancement Processing/Scale-Up 3D Printing Wearable Technology

Characterization Keynote Luncheon Speakers - Wednesday & Thursday

Pre-Conference TPE Primer:

A half-day primer on TPE basics, taught by industry experts, will take place on Tuesday afternoon as a prequel to the main conference.

Chemistry, key performance properties, formulating and applications will be covered for commodity, engineering and specialty TPEs.

The primer is independent and requires a separate registration fee.

Questions?:

William Blasius774-545-0990

wgblasius@gmail.com

Vivian Malpass330-342-1120

vivian.malpass@tek-mark.com

Sponsored by:The SPE Thermoplastic Elastomers SIG

in partnership with the SPE Akron Section.

Thermoplastic Elastomers

4spe.org/tpe2016

Bio-Renewables

The conference this year will feature:

Hilton-Akron/Fairlawn, Akron, OHSeptember 20-22

Stretching Performance with TPEs

Topical Conference Thermoplastic Elastomers th12

The conference this year will feature:

Hilton-Akron/Fairlawn, Akron, OHSeptember 20-22

Stretching Performance with TPEs

2016®Topical Conference Thermoplastic Elastomers

Speakers - Wednesday Keynote Luncheon Characterization

Wearable Technology 3D Printing Processing/Scale-Up Additives for Performance Enhancement Bio-Renewables

& ThursdaySpeakers - Wednesday

Additives for Performance Enhancement

Questions?:

registration fee.The primer is independent and requires a separate

engineering and specialty TPEs.and applications will be covered for commodity, Chemistry, key performance properties, formulating

prequel to the main conference.experts, will take place on Tuesday afternoon as a A half-day primer on TPE basics, taught by industry

Questions?:

The primer is independent and requires a separate

engineering and specialty TPEs.and applications will be covered for commodity, Chemistry, key performance properties, formulating

prequel to the main conference.experts, will take place on Tuesday afternoon as a A half-day primer on TPE basics, taught by industry

Sponsored by:

vivian.malpass@tek-mark.com330-342-1120

Vivian Malpass

wgblasius@gmail.com774-545-0990

William Blasius

Questions?:

Sponsored by:

vivian.malpass@tek-mark.com330-342-1120

Vivian Malpass

wgblasius@gmail.com774-545-0990

William Blasius

Questions?:

in partnership with the SPE SPE Thermoplastic Elastomers SIGThe

Sponsored by:

.Akron Sectionin partnership with the SPE SPE Thermoplastic Elastomers SIG

Sponsored by:

“Customers are able to select the features and performancethey need today, with confidence that they will be positionedto meet the requirements of future applications.”Built on a compact footprint, the GVX-3 welder offers easy

rear-door access for tool changes, with a wide front doorfor part loading and unloading. Internally, the welder offersa large lift table driven by a servo motor, offering clampforces of up to 25 kN and optional closed-loop calibration andcontrol. For applications that require clean, particulate-freewelds, the GVX-3 welder can be fitted with a modular CVTpackage that utilizes infrared power emitters to pre-heatpart joints for faster, more consistent vibration welding,even for parts with complex, 3-D geometries.An advanced user interface enables the GVX-3 to accom-

modate up to 99 different users with configurable accessrights. Programmers may select from dozens of tooling codesand unlimited welding specifications, plus other featureslike automatic tooling identification and weld specificationrecognition. Operators can easily access production-relat-ed functions and equipment safeties, but are preventedfrom modifying production-critical programming.User-configurable GVX-3 upgrades include:

• Head Power Package: A larger, more powerful vibrationhead provides more power for welding larger parts,plus enhanced control when welding higher-melt-tem-perature materials such as nylon.

• Force Package: Boosts clamping force of 15-25 kN tohandle a greater range of parts and flatten even warpedparts prior to welding.

• Speed Package: A cycle-speed package increases theoperating speed of the doors and lift table to safely max-imize production cycles and support greater processautomation.

• Weld Precision Package: Closed-loop control improvesrepeatability and weld quality by reducing variability inforce application and lift table position, maintaining pre-cision even for low-clamp-force (1-3 kN) applications.

• Quick Tool Change Package: Reduces tool change timeand boosts productivity by enabling auto-connectivitybetween pneumatic and electrical components on thelower fixture and spring balls on the lift table.

• Audible Safety Package: A noise-reduction package lim-its noise from the GVX-3 welding enclosure to improveoperator safety.

• Single- or Dual-Axis CVT: Infrared power emitters, housedin a modular frame, preheat part joints and producewelds that are virtually particulate-free.

www.bransonultrasonics.com

Wittmann Battenfeld Inc. has supplied an all-new injectionmolding machine workcell to the University of Massachu-setts–Lowell for use in the school’s Plastics Engineering Lab.The workcell features an EcoPower all-electric moldingmachine, a W818 robot with telescopic vertical arm, an index-ing conveyor, and a Tempro Plus D temperature control unit. A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held to formally open the

newly updated lab on March 23, attended by David Preusse,president of Wittmann Battenfeld Inc. (and a UMass–Lowellengineering graduate), James Peyser, Massachusetts Secre-tary of Education; Jacquie Moloney, chancellor ofUMass–Lowell; and Joseph Hartman, dean of UMass-Low-ell’s Francis College of Engineering—plus students and faculty.Chancellor Moloney thanked Wittmann Battenfeld for its

support of the Plastics Engineering program and said thatthe new machinery will “have a transformative effect.”Secretary Peyser also thanked the company for support-

ing the quality of education that UMass–Lowell can provide.“Colleges and universities can’t do it themselves—they needthe support of the private sector.”David Preusse noted that the school already had two old-

er Battenfeld molding machines in its labs, originally placedthere in the mid-1990s. Wittmann Battenfeld took one of theolder machines back for upgrades and replaced it with thenew EcoPower workcell. The second machine, used for liq-uid silicone rubber molding, will continue to be used in theUMass–Lowell lab.

INDUSTRY NEWS

Photo courtesy of Wittman Battenfeld Inc.

The new workcell employs Wittmann 4.0, the company’sversion of “Industry 4.0” that provides complete connectivi-ty and communication between all systems. David Kazmer,a professor at UMass–Lowell who teaches process control,automation, and machine integration, reportedly will be usingthe workcell to teach students how to take injection mold-ing to the next level using web integration, controlling datastorage, and otherwise incorporating Industry 4.0.www.wittmann-group.com

The SPE Thermoforming Division has named Ian Strachanas Thermoformer of the Year. The award will be presentedduring SPE’s Thermoforming Awards Dinner, held in con-junction with the 25th SPE Thermoforming Conference®,held September 26-28, 2016, in Schaumburg, Illinois. Strachan entered the thermoforming industry when he

became general manager of the Elvinco Group of Companiesin 1971, where he was involved with the development ofnew technologies in thermoforming, injection molding, blowmolding, and extrusion. From 1974 to 1988, he served as

managing director for Nampak Mono Containers, a ther-moforming and steam chest molding company and thelargest diversified packaging group in the world at the time.He then went on to manage several subsidiary companiesthat specialized in thermoforming and extrusion, develop-ing new packaging processes that are still being used inthose markets to this day.He later formed MGA Southern Africa Pty. Ltd. and MGA

Inc., an international consulting firm specializing in tech-nology and process improvement in packaging andthermoforming. More recently, he acquired ToolVu LLC,which offers a process management system that monitorswhat is happening in a thermoforming mold in real-time.“Ian Strachan is a major contributor in process develop-

ment and improvement in the thermoforming industry,”says Bret Joslyn, SPE Thermoforming Division chair. “He con-tinues to innovate and to consult around the world to helpimprove thermoforming and auxiliary processes. Ian hasalso played a pivotal role in assisting small and developingcountries to adopt thermoforming technology for the foodand fruit processing industries.”thermoformingdivision.com

Connect | Engage | Learn.

thechain.4spe.org

Engaging with plastics industry professionals around the world to

Self-Cleaning MoldsU.S. Patent 9,227,350 (January5, 2016), “Molding System Hav-ing a Residue Cleaning Featureand an Adjustable Mold Shut Height,” Jean-Christophe Witz,Sven Kmoch, and Ralf Walter Fisch (Husky Injection Mold-ing Systems Ltd., Bolton, Ontario, Canada).Mold cleaniness of certain parts is critical in blow molding

with preforms for a continuous, efficient molding processwith a minimum of defects. Witz, Kmoch, and Fisch developeda method for periodic cleaning of a sensitive part of themold, such as a preform neck, without mold disassembly,using a special cleaning component. This device blocks themelt and forces a cleaning fluid through the mold and outthe vents after cleaning. This system is designed to operateafter a predetermined number of molding cycles.

Thermally Conductive PolymersU.S. Patent 9,238,879 (January 19, 2016), “Method of Fabri-cating Thermal Conductive Polymer,” Yongrak Moon andKangmin Jung (SK Innovation Co., Ltd., Seoul, South Korea).In some applications, the low thermal conductivity of ther-

moplastics leads to heating problems and limits theirapplications. Thermally conductive fillers can help, but high-ly filled plastics are difficult to process. Moon and Jung fabricated a thermally conductive poly-

mer fiber by spinning an ultra-high molecular weightpolyolefin (UHMWPO) gel, stretching the gel filament, drying,and repeating the process. This results in a filament with 80to 95% crystallinity and a dichroic ratio of 1 to 10. The UHMW-PO has a weight-average molecular weight of 3,500,000 to10,500,000 g/mol and an absolute viscosity of 5 to 45 dL/g.

Very Strong LaminatesU.S. Patent 9,238,347 (January19, 2016), “Structural MemberFormed from a Solid LinealProfile,” Sherri M. Nelson, David W. Eastep, Timothy A. Regan,

Michael L. Wesley, and Richard Stiehm (Ticona LLC, Florence,Kentucky, USA).Reinforced structures can be formed by pultrusion. Unfor-

tunately, very high tensile-strength materials are limited byprocessing difficulties. Nelson et al. produced a high-strength material by lami-

nating several reinforced ribbons with aligned continuousfibers embedded within a thermoplastic polymer. The con-tinuous-fiber ribbons are fused together by pultrusion toform a solid profile with very high tensile strength.These ribbons contain 40 to 90 wt% fibers in a thermo-

plastic matrix of any of the engineering thermoplastics(polybutylene terephthalate is especially suitable). The rib-bons are heated above the softening temperature of thethermoplastic matrix and pultruded through two dies. Thefirst die laminates the ribbons, and the second die shapesthe laminate.

Hot Filling Plastic BottlesU.S. Patent 9,238,341 (Janu-ary 19, 2016), “Preform NeckCrystallization Method,”Yoichi Tsuchiya (Nissei ASBMachine Co., Ltd., Nagano, Japan).Hot filling blow-molded plastic containers, especially poly-

ethylene terephthalate (PET) wide-neck containers, can bea problem because of sagging during filling. Resistance tothis filling can be developed by crystallization of the plastic.Tsuchiya developed a neck crystallization method by insert-

ing a core into the neck and heating the neck while rotatingthe preform on its axis and cooling. The heating of the neckis done in two stages, a rapid heat step and a slow heatingstep. The first heating quickly starts the crystallization, andthe second heating enables precise control.

A Better Body ArmorU.S. Patent 9,238,332 (January 19, 2016), “Protective Mate-rial Arrangement,” Michael Dunleavy, Sajad Haq, and CarolineJoleen Morley (BAE Systems plc., London, UK).Body armor provides protection against a variety of

By Roger Corneliussen

INDUSTRY PATENTS

56-57 Patents_046854 IndustryNews.QXD 4/19/16 6:03 AM Page 56

“impact events”—especially gunfire. Typical body armorconsists of several layers of a polyaramid (Kevlar) fabric,but these fabrics tend to be heavy and hot. Attempts toimprove body armor by impregnating the fabric with ashear-thickening fluid have failed; impregnating actuallydegrades anti-ballistic properties. Dunleavy, Haq, and Morley instead encased layers of

antiballistic fabric in an armor fabric impregnated with apolymeric material. This polymer is an ionomer such asan ethylene-methacrylic acid copolymer with a mixture ofneutral repeat units and 15% or less ionized units. Thismaterial even shows self-healing after an impact event.Other high-strength fibers may be used such as graphite,nylon, glass fibers, nanofibers, and high-strength poly-ethylene fibers.

Injection Molding MotorsU.S. Patent 9,238,318 (Jan-uary 19, 2016), “Method forManufacturing a Motor,”Chao-Wen Lu and Chih-WeiChan (Delta Electronics,Inc., Taoyuan Hsien, Taiwan).In motorized applications such as motor-driven fans, dura-

bility is limited by vibrations. Lu and Chan reduced thisproblem by injection molding a cushioning material betweena bushing and the motor. The motor consists of a substrate,a bearing, a shaft, and a stator. The rotating shaft of the fanis connected to the motor through an opening in the motorand separated from the substrate by a bushing. This bush-ing is shielded from the motor by a cushioning material suchas rubber, a damping material, or other elastic, moldablematerial which is injection molded into the structure dur-ing assembly.

Precision MoldingU.S. Patent 9,233,496 (January 12, 2016), “Adjustment Mech-anism of Mold System Having Electrically Adjusting andPositioning Functions,” Cheng-Hsien Wu, Cheng-Hao Chiu,Chieh-Ju Wu, and Kai-En Chang (National Kaohsiung Uni-versity of Applied Sciences, Kaohsiung, Taiwan).In many molding operations, a precise and frequent adjust-

ment of a mold system is essential for reliable andreproducible molding operations. But methods for very fineadjustments during molding are lacking.Wu et al. developed a mold system including a carrier plat-

form with at least two adjustment mechanisms. Each of theadjustment units includes a positioning member and a piv-otally electrically driven adjustment device.

Controlling RadiationU.S. Patent 9,227,383 (January 5, 2016), “Highly Flexible Near-Infrared Metamaterials,” Kok Wai Cheah and Guixin Li (HongKong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Kowloon, Hong Kong,China).Metamaterials are composites of many different materi-

als, including metals, ceramics, and plastics. Their propertiesare determined by geometry and structure as well as by theproperties of the individual materials. These smart materi-als are capable of manipulating electromagnetic waves orradiation in ways not possible by conventional materials.Cheah and Li developed a multilayer flexible metamate-

rial that can manipulate near infrared radiation ontransparent PET substrates using flip chip transfer (FCT)techniques. This device can be transformed into variousshapes by bending the PET substrate. This device is tunablevia manipulation of its flexible substrate without changingthe material’s composition. These materials enable noveltunable sensors and emitters.

56-57 Patents_046854 IndustryNews.QXD 4/19/16 6:03 AM Page 57

SPE CONFERENCES

June 5-8, 2016. Rotational Molding TopConSite: Holiday Inn Cleveland South, Independence, Ohio,USAContact: Larry WhittemoreEmail: LWhittemore@stonersolutions.comWebsite: www.4spe.org/events

June 6-7, 2016. New Innovations – Decorating ofPlastics Site: Marriott Conference Center – Cool Springs, Franklin,Tennessee, USAContact: Jeff PetersonEmail: jeff@petersonpublications.comWebsite: www.4spe.org/events

June 21-22, 2016. Design in Plastics 2016Site: Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RhodeIsland, USAContact: Bob GraceEmail: bob@rcgrace.comWebsite: www.4spe.org/events

Aug. 18-19, 2016. Trends and Innovation/The North-East TopConSite: Quebec City Convention Centre, Quebec City,CanadaContact: Marie-France SosaTel.: +1 450-889-7277Email: m.sosa@plastiquesqpr.comWebsite: www.4spe.org/events

Sept. 7-9, 2016. Automotive Composites Conference &Exhibition (ACCE)Site: The Diamond Banquet & Conference Center at theSuburban Collection Showplace, Novi, Michigan, USAContact: Rani RichardsonTel.: +1 201-675-8361Email: rani.richardson@3ds.comWebsite: www.4spe.org/events

Sept. 11-13, 2016. CAD RETEC® 2016Site: Sawgrass Marriott Golf Resort, Ponte Vedra Beach,Florida, USAContact: Scott AumannEmail: scott.aumann@endmillipore.comWebsite: www.4spe.org/events

Sept. 12-14, 2016. FOAMS® 2016Site: Crowne Plaza, Seattle, Washington, USAContact: Xiaoxi WangEmail: wang0213@gmail.comWebsite: www.4spe.org/events

Sept. 20-22, 2016. VINYLTEC® 2016Site: Woodbridge Renaissance Hotel, Iselin, New Jersey,USAContact: Mark LavachTel.: +1 610-878-6985Email: mark.lavach@arkema.comWebsite: www.4spe.org/events

Sept. 20-22, 2016. Thermoplastic Elastomers TopConSite: Hilton Fairlawn Hotel, Akron, Ohio, USAContact: Vivian MalpassEmail: vivian.malpass@tek-mark.comWebsite: www.4spe.org/events

Sept. 26-29, 2016. SPE Thermoforming Conference®Site: Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center Hotel,Schaumburg, Illinois, USAContact: Lesley KyleEmail: thermoformingdivision@gmail.comWebsite: www.4spe.org/events

Oct. 2-5, 2016. SPE TPO Automotive EngineeredPolyolefins ConferenceSite: Detroit-Troy Marriott Hotel, Troy, Michigan, USAContact: Sassan TarahomiTel.: +1 218-455-3981Email: starahomi@iacgroup.comWebsite: speautomotive.com/tpo

Oct. 3-5, 2016. 32nd Annual Blow Molding ConferenceSite: Crowne Plaza Atlanta Perimeter at Ravinia, Atlanta,Georgia, USAContact: Ron PuvakTel.: +1 419 725-5613Email: r.puvak@plastictechnologies.comWebsite: www.4spe.org/events

Oct. 9-12, 2016. FlexPackCon 2016Site: The Peabody, Memphis, Tennessee, USAContact: Donna DavisEmail: donna.s.davis@exxonmobil.comWebsite: www.4spe.org/events

Oct. 16-18, 2016. Polymer NanocompositesConferenceSite: Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USAContact: Patrick KelleyTel.: +1 570-202-4503Email: pkelley@plasticfencing.usWebsite: www.4spe.org/events

UPCOMING INDUSTRY EVENTS

58-59 Events 2COL_046854 IndustryNews.QXD 4/19/16 6:02 AM Page 58

SPE E-LIVE® WEBINARSSept. 22, 2016. “Plastic Insert Joining Failure”Oct. 20, 2016. “Fatigue”Nov. 10, 2016. “Thermoplastic Elastomers”(All webinars begin at 11:00 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time,unless otherwise noted)

Contact: Scott MarkoTel.: +1 203-740-5442Email: smarko@4spe.orgWebsite: www.4spe.org/Events/webinars.aspx

SPE MEETINGSJune 21, 2016. Detroit Section Golf OutingSite: Bay Pointe GC, West Bloomfield, Michigan, USAContact: Karen Rhodes-ParkerTel.: +1 248-244-8993 ext. 3Email: karen@SPEDetroit.comWebsite: www.spedetroit.org

November 9, 2016. SPE Automotive InnovationAwards Competition & GalaSite: Burton Manor, Livonia (Detroit), Michigan, USAContacts: Jeffrey HelmsTel.: +1 248-459-7012Email: jeffrey.helms@celanese.comWebsite: www.4spe.org/events

OTHER UPCOMING EVENTSJune 8-9, 2016. MRO ExpoSite: Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, Rosemont,Illinois, USAContact: Eric AmisEmail: registration@mroexpo.orgWebsite: www.mroexpo.orgSPE-Partnered Event

June 14-16, 2016. MD&M EastSite: Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, New York, NewYork, USATel.: +1 310-445-4273Email: tshowreg@ubm.comWebsite: mdmeast.mddionline.comSPE-Partnered Event

June 19-22, 2016. 12th National Graduate ResearchPolymer ConferenceSite: University of Akron, Akron, Ohio, USAContact: Eric AmisEmail: ngrc16@uakron.eduWebsite: ngrpc16.uakron.edu

Sept. 26-29, 2016. CAMX: The Composites and AdvancedMaterials ExpoSite: Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim, California,USATel.: +1 801-512-2547Email: info@thecamx.orgWebsite: www.thecamx.orgSPE-Partnered Event

Oct. 19-26, 2016. K 2016Site: Messe Düsseldorf Fairgrounds, Düsseldorf,GermanyTel.: +49 211 4560-7600Email: infoservice@messe-duesseldorf.deWebsite: www.k-online.com

58-59 Events 2COL_046854 IndustryNews.QXD 4/19/16 6:02 AM Page 59

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EDITORIAL INDEX

Plastics Engineering (ISSN 0091-9578) is published monthly, except bimonthly in July/August and November/December, by Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., a WileyCompany, 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030 USA. The magazine is compiled and edited by the Society of Plastics Engineers, Editorial and Business Office, 6Berkshire Blvd., Suite 306, Bethel, CT 06801 USA. Telephone +1 203-775-0471, Fax +1 203-775-8490. SPE Home Page: www.4spe.org. Communications should besent to the Editor. Send address changes and undeliverable copies to the Circulation Manager at the SPE address given above. Send subscription orders andclaims for non-receipt to Wiley Subscription Services at the Wiley address given above. SPE members receive the magazine as a benefit of membership.Subscription rate for nonmembers is $151 for 1 year; add $100 per year for subscriptions outside North America. Single-issueprice is $20. Plastics Engineering is printed by Dartmouth Printing Co., a Sheridan Group Company. Periodical postage paid atHoboken, NJ, and additional entry office. Accepted at special postal rates provided in P.M., Sec. 132 122. Copyright 2016 by theSociety of Plastics Engineers, Inc. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Plastics Engineering, 6 Berkshire Blvd., Suite 306, Bethel,CT 06801 USA. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. Plastics Engineering is indexed byEngineering Information Inc.

Neither Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., nor the Society of Plastics Engineers, nor Plastics Engineering is responsible for opinionsor statements of facts expressed by contributors or advertisers, either in the articles published in Plastics Engineering or in thetechnical papers that are presented at the meetings of the Society. Editorials do not necessarily represent the official policy ofWiley Subscription Services, Inc., or the Society. Display and classified advertisements are included as an educational service toreaders of Plastics Engineering. Advertising appearing in Plastics Engineering is not to be taken as an endorsement, expressed orimplied, of the respective company’s processes, products, or services represented in the ad.

Society of Plastics EngineersEDITORIAL STAFF

Editor-in-ChiefBriana Gilmartin

Managing EditorMichael Tolinski

Contributing EditorsDr. Roger CorneliussenJon EvansDr. Robin Kent

Marketing & CommunicationsSue Wojnicki

Branding & DesignLiz Martland & Kim Wakuluk

Art DirectorGerry Mercieca

PublisherSteven Ottogalli

2015–2016 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEEPresidentDick Cameron

CEO, SPEWillem De Vos

President-electScott Owens

Senior Vice PresidentOlivier Crave

Vice President/Web Innovation/Communication/TreasurerJaime Gómez

Vice President/SecretaryMonika Verheij

Vice PresidentRaed AlZubi

Vice PresidentThierry d'Allard

Vice PresidentBrian Landes

2014–2015 PresidentVijay Boolani

Printed in the U.S.A.

3D Systems..........................................37

A. Schulman ..................................50-51

Advanced Blending Systems ......18, 20

AGC Chemicals Americas ..................51

American Chem. Council ..................44

Arburg......................................12, 16, 37

Athena Automation Ltd. ....................15

Audi ......................................................52

BAE Systems........................................56

BASF........................................................8

Bergen International ..........................23

BMB S.p.A. ..........................................14

Boeing Co., The..................................4-5

Branson Ultrasonics ....................53-54

Composites Forecasts and

Consulting ..........................................6

Conair ......................................19, 32-34

Coperion K-Tron ..........................18, 20

Covestro ........................................51-52

Datacolor ............................................52

Delta Electronics ................................57

Dow Chemical Co., The ......................28

Emerson ..............................................53

Engel Austria GmbH ....................13-14

Fanuc Corp.....................................12-13

Fraunhofer Inst. ..................................25

Haitian Corp. ......................................12

Hitachi Maxwell ..................................25

Husky Injection Molding Systs. ........56

Imerys ..................................................36

JSW Plastics Machinery ......................14

Krauss Maffei ................................14-15

KUKA Roboter GmbH ........................12

Machine Pages S.A. ............................15

Maguire Products..........................18-19

MakerGear ....................................36-37

Mazda ..................................................24

Milacron ..............................................15

MoldMasters Ltd.................................15

Netstal Maschinen AG........................15

New Japan Chemical Co.....................24

Niigata Machine Techno ....................15

Nissei ASB Machine Co. ....................56

Nova Chemicals Corp. ..................52-53

Plasticomp ........................................6, 8

Plastisud SAS ......................................15

Quest Aircraft ........................................6

Riverdale Global..................................19

SABIC ......................................................5

SK Innovation ......................................56

Solvay ....................................................8

SPE..................................................50, 55

SPI ............................................16, 48-49

Stork IMM B.V. ....................................14

Stratasys ..............................................37

TenCate Advanced Composites ..........6

Toshiba Machine Co...........................15

Trexel ..............................................22-25

Tubs Bauer GmbH ................................6

VDMA ............................................12, 16

Wipaire ..................................................6

Wittmann Battenfeld..............11, 54-55

Zhafir Plastics Machinery ............12, 14

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with industry professionals around the world on SPE’s online platform - The Chain.

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Aaron Equipment Company www.aaronequipment.com/sniff ....................61

Allgrind Plastics www.allgrind.com ................................................................60

ANTEC 2016 www.antec.ws ..............................................................................35

Arizona Instruments www.azic.com/pe..........................................................31

Conair www.conairgroup.com/medline ..................................................Cover 4

Connect With SPE www.4spe.org ....................................................................63

Esprix Technologies www.esprixtech.com/landing-page/engineering-polymers ..26-27

IMS Company www.imscompany.com/G2 ......................................................39

J.P. Curilla Associates Email: jpcecl@aol.com ................................................60

Japan Steel Works www.jswcompounding-usa.com ......................Cover 2, 60

John Anderson & Associates www.plasticsjobsearch.com ............................60

Krailburg TPE Corporation www.kraiburg-tpe.com ......................................25

K Show 2016 www.k-online.com ......................................................................43

Maag www.maag.com ......................................................................................33

Plastic Flow www.plasticflow.com....................................................................60

Plastic Process Equipment, Inc. www.ppe.com ..............................7, Cover 3

Polyhedron Laboratories, Inc. www.polyhedronlab.com ............................60

Process Design & Technologies www.processdesigntech.com ....................60

Rheo-Plast Associates, Inc. www.rheoplastusa.com......................................60

SAM North America www.sam-na.com • Email: info@sam-na.com ..............60

Shepherd Color www.shepherdcolor.com ..................................................13

SPE 2016 Thermoforming Conference www.thermoformingdivision.com ....21

SPE CareerSolutions www.4spe.org/careers ..................................................59

SPE Design in Plastics www.4spe.org/designinplastics ....................................9

SPE FlexPackCon www.4spe.org/flexpackcon2016 ........................................47

SPE Membership www.4spe.org ......................................................................63

SPE Rotational Molding 2016 www.4spe.org/rotomolding2016 ..................17

SPE Technical Journals www.4spe.org ............................................................61

SPE The Chain thechain.4spe.org ....................................................................55

SPE Thermoplastic Elastomers www.4spe.org/events ....................................53

SPEX Sample Prep www.spex.com ..................................................................41

Tangram Technology www.tangram.co.uk ....................................................60

Turkish Machinery www.turkishmachinery.org ..............................................3

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